Director and writer Ti West has spent the past five years immersed in his unplanned ‘X’ franchise but is “MaXXXine” the final chapter in this story?
When writer and director Ti West started shooting his critically acclaimed slasher “X” — a movie about a group of actors who end up getting slaughtered while staying on a remote farm where they’re filming an adult film — he didn’t intend for the project to be anything more than one film.
It was only after production already started that West got the idea to expand the universe into at least two films, which is when he pitched a prequel to studio A24. The idea got approved and so he immediately shifted into filming “Pearl,” which earned Goth rave reviews for her performance.
That led to the trilogy of films, which is capped off with “MaXXXine” opening in theaters on Friday where Goth’s character Maxine Minx finds herself in 1985 Los Angeles still seeking the fame she was always destined for.
“It was always supposed to just be one movie called X,” West told Deadline. “I wrote a movie called X that I sent to A24. They said they would make it, and then Covid happened, and we went to New Zealand to make it. We were the only people in the world — well, some of the only people in the world — making a movie at the time. I thought, To go to New Zealand, to get work visas, to be fortunate enough to be some of the only people on planet Earth to make a movie, and then tear everything down just to go home and sit in our houses seems like a terrible waste of an opportunity. So, I was like, “Why don’t we stay in New Zealand and make two movies?”
“But [after X] there weren’t very many characters left alive, so there wasn’t much of a story. It occurred to me that could go back in time and make a prequel, because we’d built the location, and we had the actor. So, if we had a script, the second movie would cost less, and we’d already be up and running. So, in the two-week quarantine period that it took to get into the country, I collaborated with Mia and then I pitched that idea to A24. I said, “Look, we can make this movie for less money than the first movie, and we can make them both back to the back. No one else in the world’s making movies — and you could have two.” Then I was like, “We could make a third movie about Maxine when she goes to…” Well, whatever happens to her after X. She could go to Hollywood.”
That’s exactly where the trilogy picks up with Maxine on the verge of mainstream stardom after she lands a role in a major studio production after working in the adult film industry for so many years. Unfortunately, Maxine’s dreams start to crumble as her friends begin being murdered in horrific ways and every death seemingly ties right back to her — a fact the police begin to notice as well.
Even before “MaXXXine” was nearing its release, Goth had teased the possibility that the series could continue after she revealed that she had worked on story ideas with West on a potential fourth film.
After spending the past five years completely immersed in this trilogy, West admits that he’s not totally sure that he’s going to return to the world of Maxine Minx but he won’t shut down the idea either.
“I don’t know. There’s always a chance,” West said. “But for almost five years I’ve been doing this pretty much non-stop. Like, all day, every day, because I write, direct, edit, produce — everything. So, I’m very happy with the three movies. I’m very proud of our collaboration on the three movies, and I do have some ideas about how to continue the universe that is X.
“But after working on it non-stop for so long… In about two weeks, it will be the first time I actually wake up in the morning and not find myself behind something related to the X franchise. So… I don’t know, we’ll see. I might want to take a beat and maybe go do something else, and then maybe one day come back to it.”
West has an idea in mind for his next project after previously directing films such as “House of the Devil” and “The Innkeepers” before he worked on the “X’ trilogy.
“I do have a plan, but… You never know,” West said. “We’ll see. If all things work out, then, yes, I have a plan for another movie. But things rarely ever work out. So chances are this will not be my last movie, but how soon the next one will be, I don’t know. It depends on how it goes. I’m hoping it will be sooner rather than later, but we’ll see.”
West couldn’t give many details about the planned project and he won’t even say for certain if it’s a horror film but it’s not likely a movie that will star Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.
“Yeah. If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it’s very different from these movies,” West said. “But it’s not a romcom.”
“MaXXXine” lands in theaters on Friday nationwide.
