James Wan Wants Saw 11 to Trade Gore for Psychological Scars

James Wan is steering Saw again, and he sounds dead set on taking it back to what made the first one so nasty and effective in the first place. Less carnival of gadgets, more creeping dread. Honestly, that sounds like the reset this series has needed for a while.

Wan wants Saw to be scary again

Speaking to Letterboxd, Wan said he’s coming back with fresh eyes and a very specific mission: dial down the spectacle and crank up the psychological damage. He’s not tossing out the franchise’s DNA, but he clearly wants to recalibrate the mix.

"I want to make a scary Saw — not just gory, but psychologically scarring, like what Leigh and I did in the first movie."

That tracks with how the series evolved. The original film, which Wan directed in 2004 from a script by star Leigh Whannell for Twisted Pictures, mostly lived in one grim room and rode the tension between Doctor Gordon and Adam. Compare that to 2023’s Saw X, where John Kramer orchestrates seven major traps. The body count went up; the chills didn’t always keep pace.

How we got here (without needing a flowchart)

Wan helped shape the stories for the next two movies after the first, then watched the machine keep spinning mostly without him. He’s been credited as an executive producer on seven sequels, but by his own admission he hasn’t been this hands-on since the original. Meanwhile, the business side shuffled around: after a partial sale to Lionsgate, Wan and Whannell’s influence shrank, even as their names stayed on the posters.

• 2004: Wan makes his feature debut with Saw; Whannell writes and co-stars; Twisted Pictures produces.
• Mid-2000s: Wan and Whannell help steer the next two installments, then step back. Wan stays on as an executive producer for seven films but with limited creative involvement.
• 2010s: Wan builds new horror empires with The Conjuring and Insidious while Saw keeps grinding along elsewhere.
• 2025: Blumhouse acquires Twisted Pictures’ half of the Saw franchise. Because Wan’s company, Atomic Monster, operates under the Blumhouse umbrella, Saw effectively lands back in his orbit.

The plan for Saw 11

Wan says he wants to honor what long-time fans love while doing something different enough to hook people who didn’t grow up with these movies. Translation: keep the cruel puzzles, but bring back the queasy mind games and restraint that made the first one land so hard.

He’s not pretending the trap count is going to zero, but the emphasis sounds like it’s shifting: psychological tension first, bloodshed second. That’s a meaningful pivot for film number eleven.

What we don’t know yet

No release date. No casting or plot details. What we do have is Wan saying he’s truly back in the trenches and aiming for a scarier, more unsettling Saw — not just a louder one. If he actually follows through, this could be the franchise’s first real creative reset in ages.