Aunt Gladys Prequel Being Explored At New Line

It is a truth universally acknowledged that everyone is talking about Weapons right now. Social media is ablaze with discourse around Zach Cregger’s newest nightmare, the box office has lit up to the tune of $70 million in the opening weekend alone for the missing children mystery, and critics — including our very own John Nugent — are raving about the ‘huge accomplishment’ the movie represents. It’s all attention that hasn’t gone unnoticed at New Line, where — according to THR — conversations about a Weapons prequel are already underway.

Per THR‘s reporting, Warner Bros. and New Line are already speaking with Cregger about the possibility of making a movie set before the events of Weapons, centring around the mysterious arrival of Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys in Maybrook. Apparently, earlier drafts of Cregger’s Weapons screenplay had a chapter dedicated to the background of Madigan’s flame-haired, massive glasses wearing character — a figure who, as those who’ve seen the movie already will be aware, comes with plenty of narrative baggage that could benefit from a feature-length unpacking. Ultimately, the Gladys section didn’t make it to the final draft as Barbarian filmmaker Cregger tried to wrangle his delicately layered mystery into something more manageable for viewers to digest, but it appears the outsized success of the film has reignited interest in exploring that hitherto lost chapter.

Now, at the time of writing, no deals have been done, no timeline has been set, and there isn’t even confirmation that Cregger — who’s already in pre-production on his upcoming Resident Evil reboot — would be tackling the prequel himself (apparently it was actually a writer pal who brought the idea of a Gladys prequel to Cregger and the New Line brass.) But should we be (un)lucky enough to book a return trip to Maybrook, we’re sure that every single person in the entire world would leave their house and go to see Gladys: A Weapons Prequel. Watch this space!