There usually comes a time when horror franchises hit a brick wall that they struggle to get over, and with Final Destination 5 in 2011 it looked like the story of a group of teens being stalked by Death had finally met its maker. At the time, Candyman star Tony Todd said that if the fifth movie was a box office hit, then two more sequels would film back to back, but other than director Steven Quale making brief mention of the possible sequels in August that year, they slipped off radar never to be mentioned again. At least until 2019, that is, when a re-imagining of the franchise was announced with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan writing the script and original star Devon Sawa also expressed an interest in returning. In a new Deadline article about new thriller Bed Rest, it is noted that the film’s writer-director Lori Evans Taylor is currently writing Final Destination 6, which would suggest that there has been a change of guard on the writing team for the sequel.
In March 2020, Final Destination producer Craig Perry revealed that the new movie would be taking a bit of a different direction but would remain canon to its predecessors rather than being a reboot. Speaking with Digital Spy, Perry said, “We’re toying with having it take place in the world of first responders: EMTs, firemen, and police. These people deal with death on the front lines every day and make choices that can cause people to live or die. We rely on their good judgment, expertise, and calm demeanor. So why not put those people in the nightmare situation where every choice can bring about life and death – but now for themselves? We’re thinking that world might be an interesting way into a Final Destination movie, and one which can also generate unique set pieces in a very credible way”
Final Destination creator Jeffery Reddick added, “I’ve been talking to Craig, and the concept behind it is unique. I think reboot is probably too strong of a word, it makes it sound like they’re going to change everything, but it’s definitely a Final Destination movie. Craig is the master of coming up with crazy openings and set pieces. He’s told me a couple of things that happen in this one, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s not going feel like cash-grab Final Destination film.”
With this very brief bit of information, it looks like we could be getting a completely different version of Final Destination 6 to that planned before the Covid pandemic forced development on the movie to pause. The last update on the project came in November last year, when Reddick tweeted, “They were developing another Final Destination until Covid hit. They’ll pick it back up once the business starts back up.”
Now that things seems to be “back up” in many ways, we can surely expect another update on the status of Final Destination 6 in the near future.
Source: movieweb.com