Zach Cregger has given fans their first real update on the prequel to his 2025 horror hit Weapons, and this time the focus is entirely on its most talked about character, Aunt Gladys. Speaking at a director’s panel during San Diego Comic-Con, Zach Cregger confirmed that the spin-off centered on ‘Gladys’ is moving ahead and shared a few details on what kind of story it will tell.
Zach Cregger said he is genuinely excited about revisiting the character, adding that he loved working with Amy Madigan on the role. He explained that Weapons worked because Gladys stayed mysterious throughout the film, so digging into her backstory didn’t make sense for that story. But he believes there is a strong tale still waiting to be told about where Gladys came from and how she turned into the character audiences saw in Weapons. He described the story as full of twists, turns and “crazy things”, similar in spirit to the original film, and said the team is treating the project seriously rather than rushing it out.
The prequel is currently in development at New Line Cinema under the working title Gladys. Zach Cregger is writing the script alongside Zach Shields, his co-writer on Weapons. According to Zach Cregger, the script is actively being worked on and moving in the right direction, though no cast or release timeline has been shared yet.
Weapons released last August through Warner Bros. and became one of the year’s biggest horror surprises, earning around $270 million at the global box office. The story followed a group of children who vanish overnight, with the mystery slowly leading back to Gladys. The film starred Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams and Benedict Wong, alongside Madigan, whose performance as Gladys won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her unsettling presence and sudden bursts of violence made the character one of the most memorable horror villains in recent years, which is largely why a prequel built around her has generated so much interest.
Weapons also had a rocky path before it became a hit. Zach Cregger has said Pedro Pascal was originally cast in the film’s lead role, but had to drop out after scheduling conflicts caused by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, forcing Zach Cregger to recast the movie almost entirely, with Josh Brolin eventually stepping into the part. Despite that setback, Weapons went on to premiere to a rare 100 percent critic’s’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, a reception that helped turn it into one of the year’s biggest horror surprises and set the stage for the interest now surrounding a Gladys focused follow-up.
Along with the Gladys news, Zach Cregger also showed new footage from his upcoming Resident Evil movie, which releases in September. Unlike a straightforward adaptation of the video game series, Zach Cregger has said he wants the film to feel like pure survival horror, centered on an ordinary biomedical courier who gets caught in the middle of an outbreak, rather than following familiar characters from the games. Beyond that, Cregger’s next full directing project will be The Flood, a science fiction film he has written for New Line.
With Weapons having turned Gladys into an unexpected horror icon and Zach Cregger now confirming real movement on her origin story, the prequel is shaping up to be one of the more anticipated horror follow-ups on the way. Fans will likely have to wait a while longer for concrete details, but Cregger’s comments suggest the wait is meant to make sure the story does justice to the character that made Weapons so memorable.
Read More:
- Spotlight: Making Injustice Heard in a World of Untouchable Power
- Harry Potter and the Question Every Reboot Must Answer
- Good Films Are Often Bad Experiences
- Top 10 Sequels That Elevated Cinema: When Hollywood Got Better the Second Time
- How much does responsibility seep into filmmaking? Or does it at all?
