James Wan Talks SAW XI Teasing a Scarier John Kramer and Deeper Exploration of Jigsaw Philosophy
If you were worried that Saw XI might sideline John Kramer yet again, take a breath. Franchise co-creator James Wan makes it clear that the heart of Saw is still very much beating and it’s beating with Jigsaw at the center of it.
Speaking at the Sundance Film Festival, Wan reassured fans that there’s no version of Saw that works without Tobin Bell’s iconic killer. John Kramer isn’t just part of the mythology, he is the mythology. For Saw XI, Wan and fellow creator Leigh Whannell are aiming to tap back into what made the original film crawl under your skin in the first place.
“This is what I’ll say. Leigh and I, we’re not going to give too much away, but we don’t think you can make a Saw movie without Jigsaw. That’s the bottom line,” Wan explained.
“Ultimately, we want to hark back to the spirit, what Leigh and I love about the original first movie. The original first movie, which is Jigsaw’s philosophy and what makes him tick.”
As a fan of the original film, this is exactly what I want to hear, especially after concerns that the franchise might move forward without Kramer in a meaningful way. The 2021 spinoff Spiral tried that approach and it left a lot of viewers cold. Wan added:
“Well, I can tell you this, it’s definitely not Spiral,” he said. “I still blame Leigh for killing off Jigsaw, because it’s f*cking hard to try and make any future Saw movies without Jigsaw.”
Whannell was quick to fire back with a reminder of the obvious. “He did have cancer, by the way.”
Of course, Kramer’s death in Saw III came courtesy of Jeff Denlon, but by then his cancer was already terminal. The franchise famously bent its own timeline into knots with flashbacks and prequels just to keep Kramer involved.
Spiral was the lone entry that fully stepped away from him, and the reaction made it clear that experiment didn’t satisfy the core fanbase.
Wan also hinted that Saw XI will lean hard into the unsettling presence Kramer had in the 2004 original, the film that doubled as his directorial debut. Back then, Jigsaw barely moved, yet dominated every frame. He watched. He waited. He judged.
“He’s a scary guy in the first one, and we want to go back to making a scary Saw movie again, with this omnipresent thing that Jigsaw had in the first film,” Wan said.
That means less gimmickry and more psychological dread, with Kramer feeling like an unavoidable force rather than just a puppet master heard through recordings. Seeing him lie “dead” on the bathroom floor while his victims unraveled was deeply messed up, and that brand of cold, calculated menace is exactly what Wan wants to revive.
There’s also chatter that Wan and Whannell could be more hands-on with Saw XI than expected. With Blumhouse now owning half the rights to the franchise, the series has effectively landed back in Wan’s lap. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but the idea of Wan possibly returning to the director’s chair is pretty exciting!
Even without locked-in details, Wan insists the goal is clear. He wants to respect what fans love while still pushing the series forward.
“To give the fans what they love about the whole franchise as well,” he said, while also doing “something new and fresh that hasn’t been done before.”
There’s no release date for Saw XI yet.