Following the success of this summer’s Final Destination: Bloodlines, New Line Cinema is moving forward with a new installment in the long-running series. This is great news for fans of the Final Destination films, who have waited years for its return. Even better news is at least one member of the Bloodlines team will return for the sequel.
The Final Destination series has had a long life in horror cinema. The first in the series, directed by James Wong, was released in 2000. All five films, from 2000 to 2009, follow protagonists who can see a premonition of their own death, typically in a catastrophic accident, before it happens. Their premonition allows them to save themselves and others caught in the crossfire. However, Death always collects its debts and hunts down its victims one by one.
Final Destination is known for the Rube Goldberg-esque traps that are set for Death’s victims, leading to horrific (and kind of funny) consequences. Death is petty, and we love watching it get its revenge. However, the franchise has often missed genuine heart, which Bloodlines, the sixth in the series, addresses.
Final Destination 7 will team up with the co-writer of Bloodlines
While Final Destination has a large fan base, most will admit (myself included) that the franchise's quality has been hit or miss. Bloodlines succeeds as a film that stays true to the tone and purpose of the films before it, while adding some much-needed upgrades in the quality of the storytelling. The money speaks for itself—Bloodlines earned $286 million globally.
Final Destination 7 will bring back co-writer Evans Taylor, which couldn’t make us happier. She is presumably a major reason why Bloodlines works as well as it does, and she has impressive credits to her name already. She may be best known for 2024’s The Cellar Door and 2022’s Bed Rest, the latter of which marked her directorial debut. She is also working on The Edge of Normal, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, and I Am Still Alive, starring Ben Affleck.
Presumably, Final Destination 7 will continue with the emotional themes of Bloodlines. The directors of Bloodlines, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, sat down with Variety for an interview about their film. Stein particularly noted a desire to add emotional stakes to the film that were not present in the original series of films.
“In the past episodes of the franchise, they were all teenage friends, or sometimes strangers, that were thrust into the situation, and we just saw what a juicy, emotional canvas it would be to build this around a family.”
They were right, and with the collaboration with co-writers Evans Taylor and Guy Busick, plus story contributions from Jon Watts, they created a hugely successful film. The most recent installment proved that there are still new twists and turns to discover in this premise, and we know that the franchise is in good hands with writers like Evans Taylor. Now, we just have to wait and see what other familiar faces will join Final Destination 7.