Saw Series Producer Reveals First Details of Scrapped Saw X Sequel (Exclusive)

Game over for Saw XI. The sequel to 2023’s Saw X — the first to feature Tobin Bell’s John Kramer since the 2017 prequel Jigsaw — was slated for release by Lionsgate on Sept. 27, 2024, and then Sept. 26, 2025, before being pulled from the calendar entirely. Following a report that the 11th installment in the James Wan and Leigh Whannell-created franchise is “totally dead,” horror hit-maker Blumhouse announced in June that it purchased a stake in the Saw rights from Twisted Pictures co-founders and longtime series producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg.

After Saw IX co-writer Patrick Melton revealed that “inter-squabbling between producers and Lionsgate” caused the sequel to stall out, Koules confirms that he and Burg couldn’t quite get on the same page.

“Mark and I had a difference of opinion about how Saw 11 would be,” the Saw franchise producer tells ComicBook in an interview pegged to his Sophie Turner-led thriller Trust. “It’s really too bad.”

Kevin Gruetert, the helmer of 2009’s Saw VI and Saw X (the only Saw film to earn a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes), was set to direct XI and co-wrote the script with franchise mainstays Melton and Marcus Dunstan (Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, and Saw 3D).

“We had everybody in, including Synnøve [Macody Lund, who played Saw X villain Cecilia Pederson] coming back from Saw X,” Koules reveals. “She’s amazing. The script that we had was going to take place 30 seconds after Saw X ended.”

Saw X, set between 2004’s Saw and 2005’s Saw II, follows the cancer-stricken Kramer to Mexico in search of treatment. But when Cecilia’s life-saving Pederson Project turns out to be a scam, the terminal Jigsaw Killer gets his revenge, rigging death traps for Cecilia and her accomplices. In the end, the cunning con woman is left fighting for air in Kramer’s gas chamber with her fellow grifter Parker Sears (Steven Brand).

While the film’s post-credits scene reintroduces Kramer’s protégé Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), an alternate stinger revealed Cecilia escaping Kramer’s trap as a set up for XI.

“It’s just too bad,” Koules says of the scrapped Saw XI. “We had a difference of opinion, and we couldn’t resolve it.”

Melton previously described the Saw XI plot as a “very timely story,” hinting it would have continued the sick Kramer’s crusade against scammers and health insurance providers.

In a statement, Koules said of selling Saw to Blumhouse, “With the success of the tenth film, this felt like the right time to pass the baton. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built with Lionsgate over the past 20 years and deeply grateful to the fans who’ve been with us since the beginning. It’s especially meaningful to see the franchise return to its original creators, James and Leigh, and I can’t think of a better partner than Jason [Blum] to lead Saw into its next chapter.”

Issuing his own statement, Burg said that with the recent passing of Saw series executive producer Jason Constantine, “It’s time for me to move on and tell new stories. Saw will always be a part of my history and Hollywood history, and I hope Jigsaw and the Saw Universe live on for many more movies and years to come.”

The Koules-produced Trust, starring Sophie Turner and directed by Upgraded‘s Carlson Young, is in theaters August 22.