New Glass Trailer: The Beast Comes Out To Play

Oh Beast, come out, come out, wherever you are. 

In the newest trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's Glass, Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) unleashes the Beast, the 24th personality of dissociative identity sufferer Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy). 

A sequel to Shyamalan's acclaimed 2000 film Unbreakable and his 2016 psychological horror Split, Glass sees Elijah, otherwise known as Mr. Glass, heavily sedated in an institution where Kevin and David Dunn (Bruce Willis) coincidentally find themselves locked up in as well. Elijah soon recognizes Kevin's power, getting a glimmer of what he's capable of in a therapy session led by renowned psychiatrist Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), and creates an elaborate plan to let the world know that super-powered humans do exist, and they aren't all as pure-hearted and morally sound as they are in the comics. The first step in Elijah's string of schemes? Use flashing lights to force Kevin's personalities to the surface, until the Beast finally makes an appearance. 

"I am here to see if tales of the extraordinary being are true. May I meet the Beast?" Elijah asks Kevin, though it's less of a question and more of a demand, as the brittle-boned serial killer starts messing with the lights before Kevin has a chance to answer one way or the other. "I need your abilities to get us all out of here and show the world we exist."

With the Beast now let loose, snarling and climbing across the walls like the animalistic entity he is, Elijah asks him if he believes himself to be an "avenging angel." When the Beast affirms that he does, he's given his crucial mission: "Avenge us, partner." 

It's the two bad guys versus the one good dude from there on out, as the unkillable David escapes the institution and chases after the Beast before he can bring Elijah's intentions to fruition. "It has begun, David. I have found someone that will require your full potential," Elijah tells him, warning him that "a lot of people are going to die."

The trailer positions David as the hero, which he certainly is compared to the villainous Elijah and Beast, but how might Glass actually end up balancing the three central characters and their stories? David may be trying to save the day and the lives of countless innocent people, but is he also doing some kind of harm to the world of superheroes and super-villains in the process? Could Glass show viewers a side to Elijah that they haven't yet seen before, painting him as more of a sympathetic character and, in turn, giving the audience an opportunity to understand the motivations behind his dark actions?

It'll also be interesting to see how Glass will handle Paulson's Dr. Ellie Staple — is she really who she says she is? – as well as how the film will weave Anya Taylor-Joy's Casey, who appeared as Kevin's victim in Split, Elijah's mother (Charlayne Woodard), and David's son Joseph Dunn (Spencer Treat Clark) into the narrative.

Thankfully for us, there isn't much waiting left to do to find out what will go down in Glass. The film is due out in theaters on January 18, 2019.