Tobin Bell may have admitted that he’s yet to see Spiral, but the veteran star evidently still has a vested interest in the Saw franchise. Of course, that’s to be expected when the actor’s Jigsaw remains the single most iconic character in the nine-film series, with John Kramer arguably the defining and best known role of a career that dates back well over 40 years.
Jigsaw may not have appeared in the Chris Rock-fronted spinoff, but director Darren Lynn Bousman revealed that he was toying with the idea of a cameo appearance right up until the final day of shooting, and knowing how any long-running horror brand tends to operate, the door certainly isn’t shut on a comeback somewhere down the line by any means.
Not only is Bousman keeping his fingers crossed for a Spiral sequel, but a tenth installment in the main saga is also in early development, in addition to discussions over an episodic series taking place with Lionsgate TV. In a new interview, Bell admitted his belief that Saw still has many questions to answer in regards to John Kramer that he’d love to see explored further.
“All I can say to that is John Kramer, in my view, is huge. He is a King Lear-sized guy, and there’s all of these questions about him that remain unanswered that would be a whole lot of fun to answer. And one of the things I’ve tried to do with that is to always bring some depth, philosophically whatever, whether it has to do with appreciating your life. Because the fans don’t talk a lot when I meet them about the traps, or about the twists. They talk about the concepts in the films. They say, ‘I watched that film at a point in time where I really needed to realize to stop feeling sorry for myself and be grateful for how incredibly lucky I am. And so, I’ve been working on that and thank you’. That sort of thing.”
Now that Saw has joined the very rare and exclusive club of horror franchises to have earned over a billion dollars at the box office, the chances of multiple continuations happening is very real. Spiral didn’t exactly set the world alight from a critical or commercial perspective, but it still stands to be hugely profitable in the long run, so nobody would be particularly surprised were Bell invited back to dust off Jigsaw’s cloak and pull Billy the Puppet out of retirement for one last elaborate scheme.
