Although plans to relaunch the Blair Witch franchise in 2016 didn’t go as planned, Lionsgate is reportedly prepared to give it another try. This information comes via insider Jeff Sneider, and while there isn’t much at this point, it appears that Lionsgate is eager to delve yet again into the franchise’s deep lore.
It’s worth mentioning that because the 2016 film installment wasn’t exactly the smash hit everyone was hoping for, it’s likely that this new project will go in an entirely new direction. Of course, we’ll just have to wait before getting any kind of plot details. But at least we know the franchise isn’t dead just yet.
As the aforementioned Jeff Sneider revealed on Twitter via The Ankler:
“Start prepping those pitches, genre scribes, because it sounds like Lionsgate is ready to venture back into the woods again for another BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, since good IP is never truly dead in the Streaming Age…”
The first film in the franchise, the titular The Blair Witch Project, was released in 1999. The movie was a massive success and it’s often credited with helping popularize the found footage subgenre. A sequel was quickly put together and released in 2000, titled Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, although it took a massively different approach to the material. It wasn’t until 2016 that a proper found footage sequel was released, although fans were mostly displeased with the project, and it’s since been unknown what Lionsgate had plans for next.
Hopefully now that it’s been revealed they’re eager to relaunch the Blair Witch franchise, we’ll have more information on that front soon. As such, fans can stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any further updates as we have them. With three different films and a variety of other video games and multimedia projects having been released over the years, there are plenty of possibilities for a new sequel to take.