James Wan says he wants to take Saw back to its "psychologically scarring" roots, by moving away from gore in Saw 11

Now that the Saw franchise is back in the hands of original co-creator James Wan, the horror master has plans to take it back to its heyday.

"For me to finally come back to it, I feel I have probably the freshest outlook. I feel I can come back to it with a new perspective, whilst knowing that with this next movie I want to hark back to the spirit of the first movie," said Wan in an interview with Letterboxd. "One of the things I really want to do with this next Saw is make it scary again. I want to make a scary Saw—not just gory, but psychologically scarring, like what Leigh and I did in the first movie."

Wan made his directorial debut with the first Saw movie in 2004, written by star Leigh Whannell, and released under Twisted Pictures. The duo then went on to shape the story for the next two movies, but Wan admits that he has "not been involved in this franchise to this degree, to this depth, basically since the first movie." Then, after half the franchise was sold to Lionsgate, the duo had less involvement, despite Wan being billed as an executive producer for the next seven Saw movies.

Wan then went on to create horror franchises The Conjuring and Insidious and seemingly left Saw behind. That is until 2025, when Blumhouse acquired Twisted Pictures' half of the franchise. Since Wan's own production company, Atomic Monster, falls under Blumhouse, Saw was ultimately back in his hands.

As for Wan's plans for Saw 11, it is no secret that the Saw franchise has grown gorier and bloodier with each film released. When we think back to the first movie, there was only one trap set by Jigsaw, with most of the film focusing on the psychological trauma caused to Doctor Gordon and Adam. But in Saw 10, which hit screens in 2023, we saw John Kramer set up seven major traps.

"I want to honor what people have come to love about the franchise, whilst trying to do something fresh and new that we haven’t seen before," added Wan. "This next movie would be the eleventh installment, and there have been lots of films in this world. We need to do something different in order to reach out to a new generation that didn’t grow up with it."

Saw 11 does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our guide on how to watch the Saw franchise in order, or keep up with upcoming horror movies heading your way.