Glass trailer unites the worlds of Split and Unbreakable

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Published on July 20, 2018 07:18PM EDT

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan went the long way around to create his Unbreakable superhero trilogy, a threesome which comprises 2000’s Unbreakable, last year’s Split, and the upcoming Glass (out Jan. 18, 2019), the trailer for which was released Friday during San Diego Comic-Con.

In fact, by the time James McAvoy signed on to play the villainous Kevin Wendell Crumb in 2017’s Split, it didn’t even occur to the actor that his movie might occupy the same universe as Unbreakable. Shyamalan clued him in during rehearsals.

“We were chatting and he said, ‘Well, maybe if this one does well, we’ll do another one,’ ” McAvoy told EW in a recent interview. “I was like, ‘Really? We’re going to do a sequel to Split?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you know, bring back David and all that.’ And I was like, David?” The filmmaker meant Bruce Willis’ David Dunn, the workingman superhero of Unbreakable. That’s when McAvoy knew: “Oh, wait a minute…”

In addition to McAvoy and Willis, Glass also stars franchise returnees Anya Taylor-Joy and Samuel L. Jackson — who plays the titular supervillain “Mr. Glass” — as well as series newbie Sarah Paulson. The latter is a psychiatrist treating the characters played by McAvoy, Willis, and Jackson.

“She deals with people that think they’re comic-book characters,” says Shyamalan. “It’s kind of the modern-day equivalent of ‘I think I’m Jesus’ or ‘I’m an emperor.’ ”

Watch the trailer for Glass above.

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