Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe director Fede Alvarez has a handful of upcoming projects in the works, including a new take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that he’s producing and a zombie film for Lionsgate that’s currently titled 16 States. But one project Alvarez won’t be directing is the sequel to 1986’s Labyrinth that he had recently been attached to.

It was announced back in 2017 that Fede Alvarez would be directing a follow-up to the classic Jim Henson-directed Labyrinth, which was said to be “a direct continuation of the first movie… [set] many years later.” Alas, Alvarez reveals in a new chat with Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew Podcast that just went up this week, he has since stepped away from that project.

“It’s so hard to decide what’s worth your time. And what’s worth the attention of the audience. Labyrinth was something I was going to do at some point, but then I stepped down,” Alvarez reveals. “I just felt…when people have a preconceived notion of what something should be, it’s very hard to succeed – to surprise them. They’re just expecting the same thing again. So I just decided I didn’t want to do things as a director that people knew already what it was. Or have a preconceived notion of how it should look on the screen. So Labyrinth would be something that people would judge that way, so I decided not to do it.”

Providing more insight into where his head is at right now, Alvarez noted a bit earlier in the interview, “My last movie (The Girl in the Spider’s Web) was me going to make a movie for the studio for the first time, like from inside. There were some things that I enjoyed and some things I didn’t about that. I’ve since wanted to just make the movies that really matter to me.”

That brings us to Lionsgate’s 16 States, which Alvarez is setting up as his next film. He teases to the Boo Crew, “You’ll be surprised. It’s a very cool take on the zombie movie.”

You can listen to the entire Boo Crew podcast with Fede Alvarez below.

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