Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, or a “Saw” fan what happened on March 17, 2025. While the reported cancellation of the 11th chapter was devastating news for the franchise’s cult following, this confirmation was a long time coming.
From the moment the release date was pushed back an entire year from Sept. 27, 2024 to Sept. 26, 2025, fans began to worry that the series they were optimistic to see bounce back from rock bottom would never blossom in the way they had hoped.
Speculation about the film’s cancellation began this past December, with the loyal fanbase taking to social media platforms to express their dissatisfaction.
“They cancelled Saw 11 so I blocked Scream.” X user @djamesse_ said on Dec. 6.
Despite the depressing circumstances, this is not the franchise’s first rodeo with being officially scrapped. “Saw 3D,” released in 2010, was seemingly confirmed to be the final installment for nearly a decade. The cancellation was a result of a decline in box office success for the franchise. Its full title was even “Saw 3D: The Final Chapter.”
Of course, that ended up not being the case after all, with “Jigsaw” releasing on Oct. 27, 2017. While that film was underwhelming at best and unwatchable at worst, it marked an exciting revival for the series as a whole. However, both “Jigsaw” and “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” (2021) seemed to take place more within their own self-contained storylines. The titular Jigsaw killer John Kramer (Tobin Bell) was in “Jigsaw,” but in his first appearance in seven years, was severely underutilized. He was a human plot device used to explain the final trap of the movie and then he exited stage right, never to be seen again. He was subsequently nowhere to be found in “Spiral.” With the franchise’s habit of drawing connections between films being one of its most defining aspects, fans began to fear they may never see their favorite characters get their moment on the big screen again.
Those fears were relieved quickly when not only was the next project announced, but Bell’s return as a key player was also revealed by a post on the film franchise’s official Instagram account on Oct. 24, 2022. The caption read, “Time to play by Tobin Bell’s rules. Again.”
Fans were given an additional surprise nine months later when on July 29, 2023, the Instagram account posted a video captioned “Guess who’s back?” confirming Shawnee Smith’s return as Kramer’s apprentice and fan favorite character Amanda Young, over a decade after her last appearance in “Saw VI” (2009).
Upon the release of “Saw X” on Sept. 29, 2023, critics praised the film as the best movie in the saga since the original “Saw” (2004), and “Saw X” had the honor of being the only installment to be “certified fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. The traps were as imaginative and gruesome as ever, the plot was engaging, and Bell and Smith managed to retain their electric chemistry over 10 years after their last on-screen appearance together. “Saw” fans were on top of the world for the first time in a long time, and it seemed as though things could only go up from here.
“Saw XI” was originally greenlit by Lionsgate in 2023 following the box office success of “Saw X.” According to writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, they sent in a draft of the script for the eleventh film but never heard back.
As it currently stands, “Saw XI” has been replaced on Lionsgate’s release calendar and its intended release date was given to “The Strangers Chapter 2.”
However, all hope may not be lost. The same day the sad news dropped, Lionsgate released a message delivered by the mascot of the series, Billy the Puppet: “I’ve seen the rumors. They say it’s game over. You all should know me better than that. The game is never over.”
