‘Saw’ Producers Felt Like They Owed ‘Saw X’ to Jigsaw Actor Tobin Bell (Exclusive)

"Who are the idiots that said 'yes' to killing the leader of your movie?"

Mark Burg knows that he and his Saw producing partner Oren Koules should have never signed off on the climax of 2006's Saw III, which featured the shocking death of franchise star Jigsaw, a.k.a. John Kramer (played by Tobin Bell). "We said that every day," Burg tells The Messenger of regretting the decision. "But who knew that this was going to live on? Well, we had to come up with ways of bringing him back into the movie."

With the exception of the most recent installment, 2021's Chris Rock-led Spiral, the creative team succeeded in finding ways to keep John in the game, whether via flashbacks or imagery. But even before Rock surprised the producers by coming out of nowhere to pitch Spiral, they were already planning on going back to the beginning with Saw X, which is set between the events of 2004's Saw and 2005's Saw II. The idea was to revive the twisted serial killer — and finally give Tobin Bell the spotlight he deserved.

"The first 20, 25 minutes of this movie, he's John Kramer," Koules says of Bell, who spent seven of his eight days filming the first movie just laying on the ground to set up a game-changing reveal. "I don't want to say it's payback, but it was a little bit of Tobin doing so much great stuff for us, and so this let him show off his chops and be John Kramer."

Directed by original Saw editor Kevin Greutert, the 10th installment follows John after he learns that his cancer has advanced and he only has months to live. Alerted to an experimental treatment in Mexico City, he opens his wallet and heads south, only to realize later that he and many others have been conned. As you'd guess, in pursuit of revenge, John does what he does best: Kidnap and trap.

But John couldn't return without his trusty sidekick! Also revived for Saw X is Shawnee Smith's Amanda Young, who, after starting with a brief appearance as a Jigsaw victim in Saw, became the heir to the sadistic throne.

"Story-wise, Jigsaw is dying, so we knew he couldn't physically do all the traps, and then we needed to create a storyline where somebody could help him," Burg explains, with Koules adding of Amanda, "She's so beloved that it was kind of obvious."

Despite the franchise output now being in double digits, Saw X was designed to be as "standalone" as a 10th movie can be. "If you haven't seen any of the previous Saw movies, you can watch this movie and enjoy it and get it, like, 'Oh, this is what Saw is about,'" says Burg, who already has his eye on No. 11. "And should this movie work, we left some nuggets and threads in there that need to be finished to keep the saga going."

And that might include a crossover within the series. "If Chris is around," Burg says of Rock, "hopefully one day we can go back and merge that [Spiral] storyline with Jigsaw and Tobin." Now, that's a scary thought!

Saw X is now in theaters.