At the start of March, an image cinematographer Christian Sebaldt shared on Instagram revealed that Final Destination 6 (which is going by the title Final Destination: Bloodlines) was finally, after years of development and a thirteen year gap between sequels, heading into production. Then franchise producer Craig Perry took to social media to confirm that Final Destination: Bloodlines was indeed filming, the aim being to get this one into theatres in 2025 – in time to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the original film. It will even be on IMAX screens! Filming wrapped in May, so we figured this would be a good time to compile a list of Everything We Know About Final Destination 6.
Franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick – who wrote the initial screenplay for the original Final Destination and contributed to Final Destination 2 – has been kept in the loop as Final Destination 6 made its way through development, and he has said that this new sequel is going to shake up the formula a bit. He told Dread Central (with thanks to ComicBook.com for the transcript), “I’m really excited with the story that I can’t tell you about. I will say that it’s not just going to be another kind of ‘we set up a group of people, they cheat death, and then just death gets them.’ And there’s one wrinkle that we kind of added to every movie to kind of like change it up a little bit. This one is a true Final Destination movie, but it doesn’t follow that kind of formula that we’ve kind of established… I think I can say that much. It’s very much still a Final Destination movie. It’s not a requel, it’s not anything crazy, but it’s not your typical ‘have an accident, Death starts knocking off the survivors’. It’s different than that. That’s all I can say. But it’s very much a Final Destination movie and I think it’s a really, really smart way… I’m really excited about it.” He later told Collider, “you can’t get away from the cheating death and death coming after you part of it because that’s what makes it a Final Destination film” but this one “doesn’t just kind of add another layer. Usually there’s a new layer every film where it’s like, ‘Oh, well, this can save you or this can save you.’ This film dives into it in such a unique way, it attacks it from a different angle, so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you’ … There’s an expansion of the universe … an expansion of the world of Final Destination that I think fans are gonna be really interested in and intrigued by. When I say it doesn’t add a layer, it’s not just, ‘Hey, if you murder somebody in your place, you’ll live.’ It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.“
According to entertainment industry scooper Daniel Richtman, Final Destination: Bloodlines has the following synopsis: Just as she’s about to leave home for college, 18-year-old STEFANI, who’s been having horrific nightmares about dying in a tower accident in the 1960s, discovers that her dream is actually a premonition that happened to her grandmother, Esther, who thwarted death fifty years ago but is now running out of time. Stefani learns that though her grandmother thwarted Death (until she died in her 80s), and Death has been going after the would-have-been victims of that long-ago catastrophe, killing them off and then going after their children. Stefani and her family realize that their bloodline isn’t safe from Death, who will take them violently and gruesomely, in order, unless someone like Stefani figures out a way to stop it.
Jon Watts, director of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, is producing the film with Craig Perry, Dianne McGunigle, and Sheila Hanahan Taylor. Watts also wrote the initial treatment, which was fleshed out into a screenplay by Lori Evans Taylor and Guy Busick. The directing duo of Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, who previously directed the 2018 film Freaks (starring Emile Hirsch and Bruce Dern) and the 2019 live-action Kim Possible movie, are at the helm.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lipovsky and Stein beat out over two hundred other candidates for the directing gig, rising to the top through their ideas and passion for the Final Destination brand. “The duo were already in line to get the gig when one final Zoom pitch meeting became what some in Hollywood called “The Zoom call to end all Zoom calls”. The duo made their pitch to New Line execs and producer together, with a burning fireplace behind them. As they wrapped up the meeting, the fire came alive and the mantle began burning. The filmmakers stopped and after a tense moment, quickly extinguished the flames. As they sat down, everyone relieved the accident had passed, a wrenching creak was heard and suddenly, the whizzing ceiling fan broke off and flew down, decapitating one of the filmmakers. The execs and producers went from concern to all-out laughter. The bit, using a combination of pre-recorded footage and visual effects, had transitioned seamlessly and showed their unabashed enthusiasm. It was, to all involved, the cherry on top.“
The film stars Brec Bassinger, Teo Briones, Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Richard Harmon, Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones, Rya Kihlstedt, and Tinpo Lee. It also features the return of Tony Todd in his iconic role as mortician William Bludworth, who was in the first, second, and fifth films.
We don’t have any official confirmation on who the actors are playing (other than Todd being Bludworth again)… but we can turn to Daniel Richtman for some character descriptions:
STEFANI LEWIS: Smart. grounded, ambitious, Stefani is about to leave her working class hometown and head off for University. Close to her younger POC brother Charlie, Stefani feels bad that Charlie has been moody and angry at her lately, probably because she’s going to be leaving him, just like their mom did. When Stefani learns the truth about the nightmares that have been plaguing her, she realizes that her grandmother Esther was telling them the truth about Death coming for the relatives in their bloodline, and she decides to do everything in her power to keep her family safe.
CHARLIE: Gangly, bright, Charlie is Stefan is younger brother. Normally very close to Stef, he’s grown moody and angry at her as her departure for college draws near, hating the fact that she’s going to be leaving him just like their mom did. When Stefani discovers the bizarre truth about Death coming for their family because their grandmother Esther thwarted it years ago, Charlie thinks the whole thing is nuts. But he has a huge respect for Stefani, and as she studies the manual their grandmother gave her before she died, Charlie realizes that Stefani understands what’s going on, and eventually he comes to believe it, too.
BOBBY: Huge, good hearted, and anxious, Bobby is a high school football linebacker and Julia and Derek’s brother, Stefani and Charlie’s cousin. Sweet and vulnerable despite not being too bright, Bobby is the only one of the family who’s immediately terrified by Stefani’s account of Grandma Esther’s story, that Death is going to come after their family in birth order. A frightened Bobby is willing to try anything to thwart Death.
DEREK: A walking collection of piercings, tattoos and smarm, defiant and a bit crude, full of ego, usually seen with a vape pen, Derek is Bobby and Julia’s brother, Stefani and Charlie’s cousin. A tattoo and piercing artist, Derek absolutely does not believe cousin Stefani’s story that their family is doomed to be chased by Death and killed before their time, and he’s gleeful when he appears to prove her wrong by escaping what should have been a fatal situation. (Producer Craig Perry has confirmed there’s a sequence set in a tattoo / piercing parlor.)
ESTHER: Grandmother to Stefani.
JULIA: Bougie tomboy desperately trying to be stylish, snarky, Julia is Bobby and Derek’s sister, Stefani and Charlie’s cousin. She doesn’t like Stefani, believing that Stefani feels she’s superior to her cousins, and loves to show Stefani how much better of a role model she is for Charlie. Like the rest of the family, Julia doesn’t believe Stefani’s bizarre story of how their grandmother Esther thwarted death fifty years ago, and now Death is coming after everyone in Esther’s bloodline in order; in fact, Julia enjoys seeing Stefani brought down a peg when her own mother refuses to believe it.
And that’s everything we know at the moment. Are you looking forward to Final Destination 6 / Final Destination: Bloodlines? Let us know by leaving a comment below.