Great news, slasher fans! Final Destination 6 has finally found its home at HBO Max. Development of a sixth installment in the death-filled franchise was announced in 2019, but the pandemic put those plans on hold for a considerable time, and now, HBO Max has decided to recusitate the series, bringing on Jon Watts, director of Spider-Man: No Way Home, to produce the film for New Line Cinema. Watts' wife and partner, Dianne McGunigle, will also produce, as well as franchise producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.
Watts has reportedly developed the treatment for the new installment, and the screenplay is being written by Lori Evans Taylor and Guy Busick, who also wrote the latest SCREAM movie and Ready or Not. This appears to be a passion project for Watts and McGunigle, with Watts sharing the following statement:
Both Dianne and I have been massive fans of Final Destination from the begining. So to be able to have a hand in crafting a new story with the original team and New Line is going to be both fun and exciting.
The success of the Final Destination franchise is rooted in its combination of gory popcorn horror and its unique supernatural element — when death comes for you, there is no escape. Final Destination is over twenty years old now, and the last installment in the series was released over a decade ago in 2011. While not everything from each sequel aged well, there are more than a handful of Final Destination deaths that have stuck with viewers for years — we at Collider still can't drive behind a log truck on the freeway. In each film, a bunch of friends somehow manage to escape death in the cold open, and death spends the rest of the movie taking them out one by one.
It's unlikely that Watts will direct the film, as he's already booked for Marvel's Fantastic Four reboot sometime in the near future. Perry spoke about his excitement to be working with Watts and McGunigle on the next Final Destination film, saying that "[their] passion for the series is only matched by how much fun they are to work with." He has a lot of faith in the creative team to deliver an impressive new Final Destination film, sharing that they have "a movie that audiences are going to love." He may be right, and the Final Destination franchise could potentially go on for another decade, with its proven formula and increasingly wild and horrifying deaths.
There are not yet any further announcements on who'll be directing or starring in the film. While, some of the sequels are quite cheesy, filmmaking technology has come a long way since we last saw a Final Destination film. With all of the tools at their disposal, Watts and the creative team should be able to deliver one hell of a ride with Final Destination 6.