A new Final Destination movie is in the works after the mᴀssive success of the franchise’s sixth installment, Final Destination: Bloodlines. Released on May 16, the latest installment became the best-reviewed and highest-grossing in the franchise, having grossed over $286 million worldwide and received strong reviews from critics and audience alike.
Now, New Line Cinemas has hired the movie’s co-writer, Lori Evans Taylor, to work on the script for the next installment, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The franchise producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor are returning to produce, along with Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle, and Toby Emmerich. Warren Zide, who served as an EP on Bloodlines, will return to executive produce.
What This Means For The Final Destination Franchise
Final Destination 7 is officially in development with key players from Bloodlines‘ creative team returning. It’s unclear at this point who will helm the project and what the movie will be about, but the sixth installment, directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein with a script Taylor co-wrote with Guy Busick, featured a new ensemble of characters that all became victims of Death’s plan.
Lipovsky and Stein previously talked about their thoughts on potentially returning to direct another Final Destination. While they stressed that they’d given everything they had creatively to Bloodlines, the co-directors also teased that they would return if there was a demand for it, and they happened to have more ideas.
The sixth installment sees the return of Tony Todd’s William Bludworth and offers the character an emotional sendoff. While the seventh installment won’t feature Bludworth, franchise producer Perry has teased the potential return of AJ Cook’s sole survivor Kimberly in future films.
Our Take On Final Destination 7
Final Destination: Bloodlines approaches the franchise’s core concept differently in comparison to other entries. Instead of exploring the scenario where a group of people survived a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly fate, the sixth installment investigates the generation-spanning after-effects when a premonition prevented a catastrophe from happening in the first place, which potentially opens new opportunities for the franchise.
It’s revealed that the franchise’s recurring character William Bludworth is a survivor of the incident and has spent his entire life running away from death. While the latest entry answered some of the biggest burning questions in the Final Destination franchise, it also left a few stones unturned. Rehiring Taylor indicates that Final Destination 7 will likely follow Bloodlines‘ thread to maintain consistency instead of doing a hard pivot to an entirely different idea.