Ahead of the start of production on The Forever Purge, the fifth film in the horror franchise, it was revealed that this next film would be the final point and would conclude the Blumhouse series. Speaking in an interview, series creator James DeMonaco (who has written every movie in the series and worked on the TV spinoff), said that his plans for the film would wrap it all up. “I think it’s a great way to end it all,” he told EW in 2018. “We want to end it all, I think, in this one, and I’m very excited. When I came up with the idea and pitched it to everybody, they seemed psyched, and I think it will be a really cool ending, how we take this one home.” In the end though, perhaps it’s not over.
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While talking with ComicBook.com to promote The Forever Purge, franchise producer Jason Blum said he’s not convinced that this will be the last movie in the franchise. Though Blum noted that he has no intention of making more movies in the series without DeMonaco’s involvement, he said he’s working on getting more sequels out of him. “I’m trying to make him write more,” Blum told us. “I would never do it without James. I wouldn’t hire someone else to do Purge movies, but I’m not through, and I’m going to try and talk him into a few more.”
Not only is Blum game for more, DeMonaco confirmed to Dread Central that he’s backtracked on his plans for conclusion, having come up with an idea for The Purge 6 but that its release hinges on audiences being eager for more films in the series.
As horror fans will recall, several franchises have boldly proclaimed that things are ending only to totally change their minds later. Friday the 13th famously subtitled the fourth movie in the series “The Final Chapter” only for six more sequels, a crossover, and a reboot to be released in the years later. A Nightmare on Elm Street had a similar path, titling its sixth film in the series “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare,” only to bring about one more sequel, a crossover (with Friday the 13th), and a reboot.
Even movie franchises from Blum’s filmography haven’t stopped after it was publicly said that they were the last in the series. The Paranormal Activity series famously announced that it would conclude with its sixth film, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, back in 2015, but a seventh movie was confirmed to be in development last year.
Total the four movies in The Purge series that have been released so far have a reported combined budget of $35 million but at the global box office the cumulative total of the series has been $458 million worldwide. With returns like that it’s easy to imagine The Purge 6 arriving in just a few years.
For now The Forever Purge will be released on July 2, 2021.
