Mike P. Nelson Will Direct the New Saw Movie as James Wan Returns to the Franchise
The next Saw movie has found the filmmaker who will decide precisely where to put the rusty machinery. Mike P. Nelson, director of 2021’s Wrong Turn and the 2025 Silent Night, Deadly Night, has signed on to direct the latest instalment for Lionsgate and Blumhouse Atomic Monster according to The Hollywood Reporter. Perhaps more significantly for long-time fans, original Saw co-creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell are returning as producers alongside Jason Blum, putting two of the people responsible for starting the whole blood-soaked enterprise back into its creative machinery.
Nelson takes over the franchise at an interesting point in its history. Saw XI had previously been announced with Kevin Greutert returning to direct after Saw X, but that incarnation ultimately fell apart. Rather than simply resurrecting that abandoned sequel, the new film is moving ahead with a screenplay by Gregory Weidman and Geoff Tock, whose credits include HBO’s Dune: Prophecy. Plot details are being kept firmly locked inside one of Jigsaw’s boxes for now, and there is currently no announced cast or release date.
Nelson certainly sounds enthusiastic about what he has been handed. Discussing the screenplay, he said that Weidman, Tock and Wan had created a “wild script” combining the mystery associated with the original film with new bloody ideas and the series’ familiar moral games. Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson has also backed the appointment, saying Nelson has a “singular vision” for the film and expressing confidence in what he will deliver.
The director already has history with Lionsgate. The studio is releasing his forthcoming horror film Beware Boiúna, while Nelson’s recent genre work has included both Wrong Turn and Silent Night, Deadly Night. Those films also demonstrate that he is no stranger to taking established horror properties and attempting something different with them, which should make his appointment particularly interesting for a series entering its third decade.
Wan’s increased involvement may be the bigger story for Saw devotees. Wan directed the original film from Whannell’s screenplay, with the pair developing the story together after first creating a short film to demonstrate the concept. Released in 2004, Saw transformed a relatively small production into a major horror franchise, with the original ultimately earning more than $100 million worldwide.
Although Wan remained associated with the early sequels as an executive producer, his filmmaking career soon took him elsewhere, eventually leading to Insidious, The Conjuring, Furious 7 and Aquaman. His return to a more substantial creative position therefore gives this new Saw a direct connection to the people who established its original identity. Wan has described making the first film as a defining experience and said finding a director capable of respecting that world was important to him, praising Nelson’s distinctive approach to genre filmmaking.
There is also plenty of evidence that audiences haven’t finished playing Jigsaw’s games. The most recent entry, Saw X, brought Tobin Bell’s John Kramer back to centre stage in a story positioned between the first two films. Released in 2023 and directed by Kevin Greutert, it earned $112.8 million worldwide, including $53.6 million domestically and $59.2 million internationally. The film’s reception and commercial performance appeared to give the franchise renewed momentum, although the subsequent collapse of Saw XI left its immediate future uncertain.
A New Saw For A New Era
The corporate picture changed in 2025 when Blumhouse acquired the Saw ownership stake previously held by Twisted Pictures, while Lionsgate retained its stake and continued as a production and distribution partner. That deal also brought the franchise much closer to Wan again through Blumhouse Atomic Monster, the company formed following the merger of Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and Wan’s Atomic Monster.
Exactly what that means creatively remains the tantalising question. Nothing announced so far confirms whether Tobin Bell will return as John Kramer, whether the new story will continue the chronology surrounding Saw X, or whether Nelson’s film represents a more substantial change of direction. What is confirmed is considerably more encouraging than another vague promise that Jigsaw will eventually return: there is a director, a screenplay, a producing team containing Wan, Whannell and Blum, and a new creative structure behind one of modern horror’s most durable franchises.
After more than twenty years of traps, tapes, apprentices, secret accomplices and enough timeline gymnastics to require its own engineering diagram, Saw is preparing to play another game. This time, Mike P. Nelson gets to set the rules.
