‘Saw’ Franchise Director Begs to Reboot ‘Leprechaun’ Franchise Again

The Leprechaun franchise kicked off in 1993, spawning six sequels and a prequel. Given that the premise involves a whimsical creature enacting his violent revenge on those he believes have stolen his gold, there’s inherent humor in the absurd premise. Despite multiple attempts to revive interest in the series with subsequent installments, none of them inspired the same cult following accomplished by the original film. Filmmaker Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed Saw II, Saw II, and Saw IV, took to Twitter on St. Patrick’s Day to remind Lionsgate how excited he would be to deliver them an all-new entry into the franchise.

The filmmaker explained, “It’s that time of year again where I remind my good friends at [studio Lionsgate] that I still want to reboot the Leprechaun movie (AGAIN)… Lep gets in a time machine and goes back to the Colorado Gold Rush. You guys have my number, I’ll be sitting by the phone.”

The filmmaker made sure to include the parenthetical “again” as it is far from the first time he has vocally expressed this desire. In 2014, Bousman explained exactly what it was about the franchise that appealed to him.

“I have always loved the Leprechaun franchise,” Bousman told Entertainment Weekly in 2014. “So much so I pleaded desperately to anyone who would listen to let me direct a reboot some years back. There was something so ridiculously fun and silly about them. A lot of people shunned the sequels, but for my money, nothing is better than watching a franchise let its villain go to Vegas, space, the hood, and then back to the hood.”

The most recent attempt to revive the series came with last year’s Leprechaun Returns, which served as a direct sequel to the original film. That film’s director, Steven Kostanski, previously shared with ComicBook.com how he aimed to revive the franchise.

“My approach is always take the story, and the work, and the craft seriously, but without being pretentious about it. You should be allowed to have fun making a movie. If you’re not enjoying yourself making it, then you shouldn’t be doing it,” the filmmaker admitted. “There was a lot of room in the script to have fun and be a little sillier, but not to the point where the movie feels like it has absolutely no stakes, or there’s no tension whatsoever. My priority was always to try to inject horror as much as possible, and we got into a rhythm where scenes that would lean into comedy would be punctuated by moments of really, either intense violence, or gore, that just takes you out of it, and gives you a bit of whiplash, just to make it more of a roller coaster.”

He added, “That was basically my mandate, was just make it as much of a roller coaster as possible, and be serious about the craft of making it, and respecting the franchise, and making it as good as I can make it. But also still being able to have fun, and enjoy ourselves making it. Not winking at the audience, but still not being scared to be silly at times.”

Stay tuned for details on the Leprechaun series.

Would you like to see Bousman take on a new film in the series? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!