Producer James Wan gives actor Patrick Wilson a significant vote of confidence for Insidious 5 after working with him for more than ten years. Wilson is making his first appearance in the horror series since 2013’s Insidious: Chapter 2. He will reprise his role as Josh, the father of the Lambert family, with Ty Simpkins as son Dalton, and Rose Byrne as wife Renai. On the basis of a screenplay by Scott Teems of Halloween Kills, Wilson will also make his directing debut with Insidious 5. One creative team member is eager to see what Wilson will offer to the project.
James Wan revealed details about the upcoming Insidious 5 while chatting with The Hollywood Reporter about his murder doll film M3GAN. Wan even went so far as to compare Wilson to Insidious series creator and another longtime partner Leigh Whannell, who is returning to both stars in and direct the sequel. The producer gave Patrick Wilson a significant vote of confidence. The following is what Wan revealed:
Well, we all love Patrick. I’ve done one or two films with that guy. But I’m super excited for what Patrick’s doing with Insidious. One of the things I love best about working with Patrick Wilson is that we don’t actually talk about the movie that we are making on set. We geek out about all the movies that we loved growing up, because Patrick and I are roughly of the same generation. We’re just constantly geeking out about John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China and all these movies. Patrick reminds me a little bit of Leigh Whannell in that they are not just actors slash whatever; they are filmmakers as well. They’re film buffs, and being film buffs, they look at acting from the point of view of what the final film will be like. And so that actually helps inform them as filmmakers. So I’m always very excited when people like Leigh Whannell and Patrick Wilson want to jump behind the camera.
Insidious 5 Maintains the Wan Heritage
The fact that James Wan is paving the path for a partner to take the helm of Insidious 5 with Wilson behind the camera is an intriguing continuance of a horror genre heritage. Leigh Whannell, who created the franchise, made his directorial debut with Insidious: Chapter 3. He has since gone on to helm the critically acclaimed The Invisible Man revival and the 2018 sci-fi action film Upgrade. The Curse of La Llorona and Annabelle Comes Home was the feature directorial debuts of Michael Chaves and Gary Dauberman, respectively, before they advanced to even more well-known franchises under his stewardship of The Conjuring Universe.
With the support of Wan, who produced the Lights Out adaptation for the big screen, David F. Sandberg has now joined the ranks of filmmakers who have transitioned from the horror to the superhero genre, going from Annabelle: Creation to Shazam! next year. The Gods’ fury. Given that Wilson already has connections to the DC Universe through Wan’s Aquaman movies, it will be intriguing to see if, should he want to do so, he can successfully transition from Insidious 5 to other blockbuster films. Fans of the horror franchise should take Wan’s appreciation of Wilson’s work on Insidious 5 and comparison to Whannell as a positive indication, even if he decides not to make that jump.