What Saw 9’s Delay Means For The Movie’s Release

Spiral: From the Book of Saw, aka Saw 9, has officially been delayed by the Coronavirus outbreak, and its future release plans remain uncertain. Created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the Saw franchise ruled the majority of the 2000s, to the point where other studios were too scared to position a competing horror film against the latest Saw sequel. 2010 saw the release of Saw 7: The Final Chapter, which in many ways brought the series full circle, and seemingly closed the book on Jigsaw.

Then came Saw‘s resurrection in 2017, with a movie simply entitled Jigsaw. At first appearing to be a reboot of the property, Jigsaw ended up being more closely tied to the prior seven films than most fans anticipated. Still, Jigsaw earned middling reviews, and while profitable at the box office, was far from the smash hit return distributor Lionsgate and franchise producers had been hoping for. However, it seems Saw can’t be denied for long, with Spiral: From the Book of Saw on the way, starring Chris Rock.

Saw 9 was previously planned to hit theaters in May 2020, but as with just about every major release planned for the next few months, it’s been delayed thanks to the Coronavirus. With movie theaters closed all across the U.S., it makes perfect sense to delay new films, but it’s unclear what will happen to Spiral in the long run.

What Saw 9’s Delay Means For The Movie’s Release

In line with most of the prior Saw films, Spiral: From the Book of Saw was originally slated to release in October, October 23, 2020 to be exact. However, the decision was later made to move up the release date to May 15, 2020, partially to avoid going head-to-head with Blumhouse’s Halloween Kills. Now though, with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic gripping the world, Saw 9 finds itself without a release date entirely. That’s understandable, as it’s unclear when it’ll be safe to stop social distancing.

That said, with the likelihood of it releasing anytime this summer now looking bleak, it’s quite possible that Spiral: From the Book of Saw gets bumped to 2021. Even if things improve by the fall enough to reopen movie theaters, Spiral would still have to risk a face off with Michael Myers to release then. A winter release wouldn’t really make sense, leaving spring or summer 2021 as the next likely release windows for Saw 9. After all, Halloween Ends releases in October 2021, so the fall is again likely a time Lionsgate wants to avoid. Of course, there’s another possibility. As more and more bored moviegoers urge studios to release new films on-demand so they can be watched at home during this difficult time, Lionsgate could theoretically go that route as well. For now, things are very much in flux.