‘Glass’ Trailer Brings Together an Extraordinary Team-Up

The sequel to M. Night Shyamalan's 'Unbreakable' and 'Split' may rival anything from Marvel or DC.
Glass

The sequel to M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Unbreakable’ and ‘Split’ may rival anything from Marvel or DC.

For so many of us, this moment is a long time coming. Eighteen years, to be exact. You think the wait for Incredibles 2 was long? Try the wait for the sequel to the other best non-comic-book-based superhero movie ever made. No, Split didn’t count. We didn’t know that was tied to Unbreakable until the last scene. Glass is the follow-up to that 2000 thriller. And it’s a follow-up to the 2016 thriller, too.

The first trailer for Glass made its debut today as Universal presented the movie during its panel at Comic-Con. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t begin with the Unbreakable David Dunn (Bruce Willis, who we saw cameo at the end of Split) nor the Beast/Horde (James McAvoy) nor the titular Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson). First, we meet the fantastic Sarah Paulson as Dr. Ellie Staple.

What’s her special gift? She specializes in people with delusions of grandeur. People who think they have superpowers. Yes, this series still focuses on a realistic approach to the stuff that Marvel and DC would prefer let run as wild as unicorns and dragons. But, as Mr. Glass knows, the belief in powers is not extraordinary. These other men with their real powers are what’s amazing. And indeed seeing the three of them together in the second shot of the Glass trailer is just plain awesome. Watch the spot here:

This is no mere teaser, though I’m still not sure of what kind of plot M. Night Shyamalan is weaving together here from his amazing characters. I guess Mr. Glass seeks out Kevin Wendell Crumb, aka the Beast/Horde, for a supervillain team-up. Against Dunn? We also see the return of Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, the girl who survived Crumb’s kidnapping in Split. She actually meets Crumb again for some reason that seems to be her choice.

We’ll learn more soon, and all I can say is I really hope that we learn Paulson secretly has a special gift of some kind, too. We can’t have another one of these movies and not introduce another superhero or supervillain. Plus, we could use one that’s not a man. Regardless, I’m looking forward to Glass more than any other superhero movie on the horizon. Fortunately, we only have to wait six months, as Glass arrives in theaters on January 18, 2019.

Bruce WillisGlassJames McAvoyM. Night ShyamalanSamuel L. Jackson
Christopher Campbell: Christopher Campbell began writing film criticism and covering film festivals for a zine called Read, back when a zine could actually get you Sundance press credentials. He's now a Senior Editor at FSR and the founding editor of our sister site Nonfics. He also regularly contributes to Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes and is the President of the Critics Choice Association's Documentary Branch.
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