Saw X Producer Reflects on Disappointments of Chris Rock's Spiral

The Saw movie franchise has taken a long, winding road to get to the tenth film, Saw X, including two stalled attempts to reboot the franchise. Jigsaw (2017) attempted a surprise prequel, with a story about one of John Kramer/Jigsaw's first trap houses, and his secret first apprentice. It made modest profits for a Saw movie ($104 million on a $10 million budget) but wasn't enough to convince Lionsgate to continue with that approach. 

Then came a major curveball with the 2021 release of Spiral: From the Book of Saw. That film was a true spinoff of the main Saw franchise, produced by and starring Chris Rock. The story of Spiral saw a Jigsaw copycat terrorize a squad of cops in a brutal revenge plot; even though the film used a lot of the iconography and staples of Saw (gruesomely deadly traps, Billy the Puppet, the Jigsaw spiral logo, etc.) audiences (literally) didn't buy into the idea of the Saw franchise without its signature killer (and/or his disciples). Spiral made a minuscule $40 million (on a $20 million budget) in the post-pandemic market. 

Set between Saw II and Saw III, Saw X is an interquel that sees John Kramer (Tobin Bell) seek a cure for his terminal cancer from a research group in Mexico. Turns out, however, those "scientists" are actually scammers – scammers who have the grave misfortune of picking one of the most diabolical and violent killers in the world to mess with. Longtime Saw movie producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg have teased that Saw X is the first installment to really make John Kramer (and Bell) the lead; during an interview with EW, they addressed how getting Tobin Bell's Jigsaw in a bigger spotlight is a plan they've had for years. 

How Spiral Delayed Saw X

"This [Saw X] was the movie Oren and myself were planning on making," Koules said, referring to 2018, afer Jigsaw but before Spiral was ever in production. Burg went on to describe how Lionsgate Pictures' VP Michael Burns shifted the focus of the franchise entirely, after meeting Chris Rock at a wedding: 

"Chris Rock goes, 'Oh, you work at Lionsgate? I love your Saw movies. I got an idea for one.'" Burg explained. He went on to describe how originally he and Koules thought to weave Spiral into the already-established saga of the Saw franchise – but the studio pushed it another way: 

"Originally, we were bringing it [Spiral] way more into the Saw universe, with Tobin Bell. Lionsgate convinced us to do a standalone movie. I loved Spiral, I'm really proud of it, but it did not do what we had hoped at the box office. We decided to go back and do the story that we originally planned on doing."

It's clear that audiences didn't love the idea of Spiral ditching Jigsaw for a copycat killer; Saw X will be the actual test of whether the franchise can convincingly fit Bell's Jigsaw back into the franchise – so long after his character was formerly killed off. 

Koules openly addressed the messy continuity that has made it hard to keep the franchise going all these years: "Listen, we're the idiots that killed off the lead after Saw III."

We'll see what happens when Saw X is released in theaters this week.