Weapons Prequel Gladys Takes Shape as Zach Cregger Expands His Horror Hit
The nightmare world of Weapons is far from finished, and now it is about to get even darker.
Following the huge success of the 2025 supernatural horror hit, a prequel is officially moving forward, and it looks set to dive straight into one of the film’s most unsettling elements. According to reports, writer director Zach Cregger is returning to pen the script alongside Zach Shields, known for his work on Krampus and Godzilla King of the Monsters. According to Deadline, the project is currently operating under the title Gladys, which should immediately ring alarm bells for anyone who has seen the original film.
If you thought Aunt Gladys was disturbing before, just wait until she gets her own origin story.
Weapons arrived in cinemas in August 2025 and quickly became one of the most talked about horror films of the year. Written, directed, produced, and even co scored by Cregger, the film followed a chilling mystery in the small town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania, where seventeen children from the same classroom all vanished at exactly 2:17 in the morning. No warning, no explanation, just gone.
What followed was a slow burning descent into paranoia, grief, and something far more sinister lurking beneath the surface.
The film starred Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan, with the latter delivering a performance that completely stole the show. Madigan’s portrayal of Gladys, a mysterious and deeply unsettling figure tied to the disappearance of the children, earned widespread praise and ultimately secured her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Not bad for a character who feels like she has crawled straight out of a nightmare and into suburban America.
Financially, the film was just as successful. Made on a budget of around 38 million dollars, Weapons went on to gross approximately 270 million worldwide, cementing Cregger as one of the most exciting voices in modern horror following his breakout hit Barbarian in 2022.
Naturally, once audiences had recovered from the film’s increasingly bleak and bizarre revelations, attention immediately turned to what could come next. While a direct sequel has been discussed, the prequel route makes a lot of sense, especially given how much of Gladys’ backstory is deliberately left in the shadows.
And those shadows are very, very dark.
In the original film, Gladys is presented as an almost mythic presence. She is tied to rituals, manipulation, and a disturbing ability to control others, including children and adults alike. The story hints at multiple possible explanations for what she is, ranging from a desperate human using dark practices to extend her life, to something far older and far less human altogether. Cregger himself has confirmed that even he kept aspects of her origin ambiguous during production, allowing the character to exist in that uncomfortable space between explanation and pure horror.
That ambiguity is exactly what makes a prequel so intriguing.
If Gladys explores her origins, it has the potential to answer questions that audiences have been debating since the credits rolled. Where did she come from. How long has she been doing this. And perhaps most importantly, what exactly is she.
Behind the camera, Cregger remains heavily involved, not just as a writer but also as a producer, continuing his creative partnership with New Line Cinema and Warner Bros. The addition of Zach Shields is also a strong sign that the film will lean further into mythological and supernatural territory, given his previous genre work.
At this stage, there is no confirmation on whether Cregger will direct the prequel, and no casting announcements have been made, including whether Amy Madigan will return in any capacity. However, given how central Gladys is to the story, it is hard to imagine the project moving forward without at least some connection to the original performance that made the character so unforgettable.
It is also worth noting that Cregger reportedly had elements of Gladys’ backstory already mapped out during the writing of Weapons, with some material even removed from the final cut. That suggests this prequel is not a rushed studio decision, but rather an expansion of ideas that have been quietly brewing behind the scenes for some time.
Before all of that, Cregger is set to take on another major horror project, directing a new Resident Evil film scheduled for release in September 2026. If that lands as well as Weapons, then Gladys could arrive with serious momentum behind it.
For now, one thing is clear. The world of Weapons is only just getting started, and if the prequel leans fully into the eerie, unpredictable tone that made the original such a standout, horror fans are in for something special.
And possibly something deeply, deeply unpleasant.
Which is exactly how it should be.
