There’d need to be some ‘big weirdness’ for M. Night Shyamalan to direct a mainstream comic book movie

Back in 2000, years before comic book movies were a guaranteed box-office gold mine, director M. Night Shyamalan released his grounded, meditative look at the storytelling medium in Unbreakable.

The story continued 17 years later with Split and is brought to its dramatic conclusion in Glass, which is out in theaters as of today. Now, with his first-ever shared universe drawing to a close, there's the question of whether Shyamalan would consider tackling a film in a mainstream franchise for a studio like Marvel or DC. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, he addressed the possibility.

"There’s been light conversations in the past about these things," Shyamalan began, but clarified that "it would have to be in a way that would allow for very weird, big weirdness to be okay."

The writer/director also acknowledged how the purveyors of big-budget superhero spectacles have started embracing more unconventional takes on classic characters, films like Taika Waititi's cosmic buddy comedy Thor: Ragnarok, which Shyamalan sees as the right move for the genre on a whole.

"I think [things] are changing," he said. "Finding a fresh take on the comic book genre is a very powerful approach now to these movies, and I think one that everybody is looking for."

While speaking at the Alamo Drafthouse's "Shyamalanathon" last week, the director said that he considered Glass an "alternative" to the mainstream movies. So much so that he took the risk of financing part of the project himself.

Though he's clearly willing to go out of his way to maintain control of his own stories, Shyamalan seems open to the possibility of telling a story in his own little corner of a larger franchise. So long as they let him get good and weird with it. (And honestly, why wouldn't they?)

Are you going to check out Glass in theaters this weekend? Let us know in the comments.