"Saw XI" Removed from 2025 Release Calendar

Jigsaw won’t be returning to theaters in 2025 after all.

“Saw XI” has been axed from the release calendar. Lionsgate’s gory slasher, the 11th installment in the long-running franchise, was scheduled to open on September 26. The studio will instead release another blood-soaked horror film, “The Strangers – Chapter 2,” on the newly freed date.

It’s not clear if Lionsgate has plans to unveil “Saw XI” at any point. The studio greenlit the sequel in 2023 with franchise veteran Kevin Greutert on board to direct. Yet the film’s screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan recently told the Hollywood Reporter that “zero progress” had been made since they turned in a draft in the spring of 2024.

Billy the Puppet, the ventriloquist dummy used by John “Jigsaw” Kramer in “Saw,” is well versed in these reports, which he dismisses as idle chatter. The spooky doll promises he’ll eventually return to theaters.

“I’ve seen the rumors. They say it’s Game Over,” Billy the Puppet said in a statement released by Lionsgate. “You all should know me better than that. The game is never over.”

Billy the Puppet is probably right, because “Saw” has remained a big screen draw for two decades with $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales across 10 films. Most recently, “Saw X” hit theaters in 2023 and slashed its way to $112 million globally. 

Anchoring the series is the terrifying serial killer named Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), who puts his victims through deadly games that test their wills to live.

“The Strangers: Chapter 1” opened in theaters last summer and generated $48 million, a better-than-expected sum since the horror film was panned by critics and audiences. Lionsgate intends to turn “The Strangers” into a standalone trilogy — separate from the studio’s 2008 Liv Tyler-led thriller of the same name — with Chapter 3 to follow. 

The first installment centers on a young couple (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez), who are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin after their car breaks down in an eerie small town. No surprise, they are terrorized by masked intruders with seemingly no mercy or motive.

“I promise that we’re making ‘The Strangers—Chapter 2’ as terrifying as possible,” Petsch said. “I can’t wait to show you on September 26.”

Producers Mark Canton and Courtney Solomon added, “Like ‘Strangers’ fans everywhere, we’re thrilled for ‘Chapter 2’ — it’s the kind of film that’ll have audiences watching through their fingers. Bringing it to theaters this Halloween season is perfect, and we can’t wait for everyone to see where the story goes next.”