Saw duo Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan brewing a new Leprechaun movie

The Leprechaun is crawling back out of the rainbow, whether anyone asked for it or not. Lionsgate are at it again with a new entry in the long-running horror series — and yes, they're putting some proper horror heads behind this one.

Saw veterans at the wheel

This time around, the screenplay is in the hands of Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. If those names sound familiar to you, you're probably a horror obsessive. These two have stuck their fingerprints all over modern genre films: they've co-written sequels for the Saw series (Saw IV, V, VI, and 3D — basically if there are Roman numerals, they were probably involved), and also made their own brand of nasty with movies like The Collector and The Collection. Dunstan tends to direct a fair few of their projects too, in case things get especially grim.

Producing duties go to Oren Koules and his son Miles Koules at Koulest Productions. Horror fans will know Oren Koules especially well — he produced every last one of the ten original Saw films, which, in total, did over $1 billion at the global box office. Executive producers Dan Heffner and Ketura Kestin are also attached to oversee the project.

Here’s how Oren Koules summed up his excitement in an interview with Deadline about reuniting with both the Lionsgate team (the studio he’s worked with for decades), story men Melton and Dunstan, and bringing his own son into the fold:

After producing all the Saw films, and twenty-three wonderful years at Lionsgate, I’m thrilled to be working again with the Lionsgate team, Patrick and Marcus, and my son, Miles, on a terrifying new way into the rich world of Leprechaun.

Lionsgate’s history of Leprechaun reboots

If this is feeling a bit familiar, that’s because Lionsgate have already had another go at reviving Leprechaun not so long ago. Back in 2023, the plan was to have Felipe Vargas direct from a script by Mike Van Waes, with Roy Lee and Miri Yoon producing. That particular version, however, died somewhere in development and never saw a single light or leprechaun.

Now Melton and Dunstan get their shot at bringing '90s horror cheese to new life. Whether it’s a total reboot or keeping things tangled into Leprechaun continuity, nobody's said. Lionsgate aren't sharing plot details, director, or cast. At this point, all they’ll admit is that a script is being written and producers are assembled. Don’t expect a teaser any time soon.

Cult favourite stays weird

For the uninitiated, the Leprechaun franchise started in 1993 with writer-director Mark Jones and starred Warwick Davis as the gold-hungry, wisecracking murder-goblin. It was only Davis’s sixth onscreen outing in a horror, and for trivia fans, that first film also gave an early role to Jennifer Aniston — years before she was hanging round with a different gang of friends.

The concept is gloriously daft: a psychotic leprechaun stops at nothing (truly, nothing) to recover his stolen pot of gold. Somehow, this premise stretched across eight films from 1993 to 2018, taking the character everywhere from Las Vegas to outer space, and, infamously, 'the hood'. Davis played the title role six times. The most recent entry was 2018’s Leprechaun Returns, where Linden Porco replaced Davis as the star, and the story circled back to the original setting.

Lionsgate got their hands on the franchise after buying Trimark Pictures in 2000. The saga now enjoys cult status — you’ll often spot back-to-back marathons of these films every St. Patrick’s Day on Syfy, because what else are you meant to do during green beer season?

The franchise includes eight films stretching from 1993 through to 2018.

No word on when, or frankly if, we’ll see the next instalment. No script, no cast, no official continuity, just Lionsgate ordering another round at the horror bar. If you needed a reminder that nostalgia properties never truly die — well, here you go.