Jigsaw Actor Isn’t Ruling Out A Return To The Saw Franchise

The Saw franchise looked dead in the water just a couple of years ago, with the horror series running out of ideas and suffering from the law of diminishing returns after churning out seven installments between 2004 and 2010, before going on hiatus and returning in 2017 with Jigsaw. The eighth entry seemed to draw a line under the famously elaborate traps that had been Saw‘s calling card, but all it took was one unexpected talent to become involved to generate the most excitement the brand had seen in a long time.

Chris Rock doesn’t appear to be the sort of actor that would be interested in headlining a new Saw effort, especially when he’s made just six movies in the last ten years that didn’t have him co-starring with Adam Sandler. However, as a longtime fan of the franchise, the 55 year-old comedian ended up starring in, executive producing and developing the story for next year’s Spiral.

With Samuel L. Jackson also on board, the film is shaping up to be the most exciting entry in the series yet, and could well lead to further sequels. It hasn’t been confirmed exactly how the plot connects to the infamous Jigsaw, but in a recent interview, actor Tobin Bell admitted that he isn’t against the idea of playing John Kramer again if the material is up to standard.

“It’s about the writing, if the writing is great John Kramer is a King Lear-sized character, in my view, there’s a huge range to him. He’s interested in a multiplicity of things, from theology to philosophy to music to art, you name it. It all comes down to the writing. Actors are always looking for great scripts and great characters. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity of playing this guy in, let’s see, one, two, three, four, five, eight films. Having an opportunity to develop him and to develop the people he cares about in those films, that’s been great. I can’t, frankly, prophesize about the future. You’ll have to wait and see.”

Spiral is virtually guaranteed to have at least some sort of connection to Jigsaw, and there’s every chance Bell may have even shot a secret cameo that’s being kept under wraps. We’ll have to wait until next year to find out, though, as the ninth Saw movie was delayed as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and will now arrive in May 2021.