Saw X producer explains why they wanted another film earlier in timeline
The latest film in the long-running horror franchise is set between the first and second entries in the saga.
Since the Saw movie franchise launched with its first film almost 20 years ago, it has spawned numerous sequels and a spin-off – but now for the first time, the series is taking its devoted fans back in time for a full movie.
Saw X – directed by franchise veteran Kevin Greutert – takes place between the events of the first and second entries in the long-running saga and sees Tobin Bell reprise his iconic role as John Kramer (aka the Jigsaw Killer).
It follows the character as he seeks revenge on the employees of a fraudulent medical organisation who falsely promised to cure his cancer, putting each of them through one of his infamously gruesome games with help from accomplice Amanda (the returning Shawnee Smith).
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Speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, long time franchise producer Oren Koules revealed that he and his colleagues had been hoping to adopt the in-between-quel approach for a while – in part due to feedback from the devoted fans of the series.
“We started thinking about this script in late 2017, early 2018," he explained. "Then Chris Rock came along in a great way and said he wanted to do a Saw movie and we worked on that [2021's film Spiral] and came back to this."
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He added: "We did a brand study, we read a lot, we listened to the fans, and they really wanted kind of the old school, original feeling for Saw. That's the script we were working on so it felt really kind of indigenous to what we were trying to do."
And he revealed that there are lots of Easter Eggs hidden in the film for fans, referencing previous instalments and playing into the extensive lore of the franchise.
“There's a couple of things in there that we absolutely put in," he said. "There's two or three absolutely intentional bits for the fans – like timeline things and Easter eggs that really helped with the timeline stuff as far as the future of Saw as they go from Saw through Saw 3D."
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Of course, one of the potential problems with setting the film so far in the past is that Bell is now almost two decades older than he was during production of those earlier films, but Koules explained how he never saw this as an obstacle.
“The good news is that when Tobin Bell started this he was 60," he said. "He looks amazing, there's not a big jump between him from 60 to 80. We might have softened a thing or two here, but we absolutely did not use any AI or any deageing stuff.
"It's exorbitantly expensive and looking at – I don't want to name names – but there's other movies that [came] out this summer that people complained bitterly about how it looked - and I'm talking about a quarter million dollar plus budget movies that people gave a lot of grief to about the way it looked and the way the actor looked.
"So it really wasn't an option for us. We love the way he looks and it's not distracting at all!”
Saw X is in UK cinemas from Friday 29th September 2023. Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on tonight.
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