‘Split’ Villain Originally Debuted in ‘Unbreakable’

Glass will bring together the heroes and villains from Unbreakable and Split for a massive showdown, yet writer/director M. Night Shyamalan recently detailed how James McAvoy‘s villainous “Horde” nearly collided with Bruce Willis‘ David Dunn in the 2000 film.

“Originally Unbreakable and Split were together,” Shyamalan shared with Vulture. “David and the Horde bump into each other at the train station, and David follows him. It’s a narrative issue. Whenever you raise the stakes, you can’t un-raise them. So once you introduce girls being abducted, there’s a ticking clock that doesn’t allow for the breadth of character development that I wanted to do in Unbreakable with David, his wife, and his kid.”

In Unbreakable, Dunn is the lone survivor of a horrific train derailment, having suffered not a single scratch. His path collides with Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) who believes Dunn has been granted with supernatural abilities. The film’s finale shows Dunn able to touch a person and see the horrible deeds they have committed, springing into action to rescue two children who have been held captive after their parents were killed in a home invasion.

It’s unclear if the original plans for Unbreakable followed this same trajectory and replaced the human character with Horde or if the final film merely borrowed some ideas from Shyamalan’s original concepts for the narrative.

In Split, McAvoy plays a man with a fractured psyche who kidnaps young girls as sacrifices to his supernaturally powerful “Beast” personality. The film was an effective thriller whose final moments revealed that it was connected to Unbreakable, unbeknownst to most audiences, making for an even more exciting conclusion.

Shyamalan recently revealed that the upcoming Glass will utilize unseen footage from Unbreakable to tie the franchise together.

“I don’t want to give too much away, but you do see moments from the original Unbreakable,” Shyamalan shared with Fandango. “Scenes you didn’t get to see. You’ll see the same actor change, you know, 18 years on camera in front of you which is really powerful.”

Given the success of the first two films in the series, Glass is shaping up to be a big hit at the box office. However, don’t count on Shyamalan continuing this franchise any further.

“We’re not doing that though,” Shyamalan replied when asked by Vulture if he is expected to develop another film if Glass is a success. “I have the sequel rights to most of my movies, essentially for the reason to not do them.”

Fans can check out Glass when it lands in theaters on January 18, 2019.

Do you wish Horde had debuted in Unbreakable? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!