Leigh Whannell Possibly Parting Ways With ‘Insidious’ Franchise

Kicking off in 2010, the Insidious series of films has been a staple of the horror genre for nearly a decade, with the fourth installment, Insidious: The Last Key, debuting earlier this year. Leigh Whannell has both acted and starred in each chapter, though his time with the series may have come to an end, as he recently teased that he might be looking to hand over the franchise to a new filmmaker.

“I’m not sure if I’m going to be involved in all honesty,” Whannell shared with Bloody Disgusting about the series’ future. “I love the films and the franchise and it’s been a good experience, but the question is always do I have anything to offer. Maybe a fresh set of eyes is the best thing for this franchise if they’re going to continue it. So we’ll see.”

The Insidious series has featured an interesting narrative timeline, as the first two films chronologically took place after the events of the third and fourth films. Were audiences to get a fifth film, Whannell thinks it would have to take place after all of the films thus far.

“I think it wasn’t deliberate but I felt like there are no more movies you could make within that loop,” Whannell noted. “We’re all caught up now.”

The original Insidious was directed by James Wan, with the two having also worked together to deliver Saw in 2003. Whannell ended up writing three films in that franchise and confessed to feeling far more exhausted with that series than he is with Insidious.

“With Saw, I was really done,” Whannell admitted. “After I wrote that third movie I was like, ‘I can’t, I’m out.’ To me, I felt the story was becoming about the gore and not about the story, which, I’m responsible. I wrote the two sequels and I felt the sequels were getting more visceral, more violent. I felt that I didn’t have anything else to offer which was a strange feeling to walk away because then they kept making sequels. I wasn’t involved creatively so there was a weird detachment to look up and see a billboard on Sunset Blvd. and be like, ‘Oh, that’s a movie that I created that now it’s its own thing.’”

The future of the franchise is currently unknown, yet the most recent chapter has earned the biggest box office haul, making a follow-up feel like a certainty. Even if Whannell doesn’t write it, he could still potentially reprise his on-screen role.

Insidious: The Last Key is out now on Blu-ray.

Do you think it’s time for a new filmmaker to take over the franchise? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]