James Wan Talks “Malignant” Sequel Possibilities

James Wan’s Malignant is one of the most unique horror projects to come along in the recent past. It was originally said to be supernatural thriller of sorts, and while that’s certainly not new territoty, coming from a modern horror legend like Wan, who brought the likes of Saw and The Conjuring franchises to the world, there was a lot of excitement.

The final product, however, was more of a parody of sorts, that poked fun at Wan’s own work and worked as a tribute to the giallo genre. The movie was designed to be a standalone feature, and when it failed to hit at the box office, bringing in only $34 million off of a $40 million budget, there weren’t any talks of a franchise expansion or follow up.

However, the streaming numbers on HBO Max have been quite strong and the film has been gaining cult status over the last year, with audiences really taking to project and critics giving it high praise. As such, there has been some talk about following up Malignant with a sequel.

Speaking with Comicbook.com recently, Wan addressed the possibility of more Malignant films and commenting on not setting out to establish franchises, saying:

That’s pretty much what I do from the very start, and not so much thinking that, ‘Oh, there’ll be a sequel for this,’ but I try to, with all my films, I try to have an idea of what the bigger world would look like, the umbrella universe, if you will. That way, when I make this particular film, I know what is happening at every moment of the film, at every moment of the storytelling, if you will. Because I know the bigger world that the story takes place in, there are potentially other stories to tell, and that usually is dictated by what the audience wants. If they want more stories, then I have more stories to pull into it. That’s my approach, even all the way back to my first film with Saw, is I do know the bigger world, like [writer] Leigh [Whannell] and I knew the bigger world, and if we were fortunate enough to tell other stories, we have stories ready to tell. I joked that, for the fans out there that want more of the films, that they should start a groundswell movement. Start a hashtag of a Malignant sequel.

While this isn’t definitive in any way, it is telling that Wan has ideas for where to go with the story for the prospective horror series. Whether a Malignant sequel is able to greenlight is anyone’s guess, but fan interest might be enough to get this one through.