Director Ti West Calls MaXXXine a "Good Place to Stop" the X Franchise

The filmmaker reflects on the satisfying conclusion to Maxine Minx's journey.

By Patrick Cavanaugh - July 5, 2024 11:55 am EDT

When filmmaker Ti West originally conceived the story of Maxine Minx, he saw the opportunity to make a trilogy of films that explored her quest for fame, so while MaXXXine has been billed as the final chapter in a trilogy, West himself has teased that there could be the possibility of expanding the story at some point in the future. During a recent interview with Variety, West offered an update on his plans, and he did confirm how MaXXXine felt like it was a satisfying way to conclude the story that started with X and continued with Pearl, though once he's able to spend some time where he's not required to think about MaXXXine, he might be inspired to pursue a continuation. MaXXXine is in theaters now.

"Making a movie is, at best, two years of trauma, so we're just figuring out a story worth enduring that. I'm very grateful to A24. I'm very proud of these three movies," West shared with the outlet. "And it feels like a good place to stop, but I do have ideas of how to continue this 'universe,' or whatever you want to call it. But in about two weeks, I will wake up for the very first time not thinking about something related to these movies. Then, the movie is done, it's out, and I'm off to the next thing. And if that brings me back around to X, great. But if it brings me to something else, that's fine too. So, we'll see."

The film series wasn't conceived of as a trilogy at first, with West first wanting to tell the story of X and, due to quarantine protocols of shooting in New Zealand during the pandemic, resulted in not only the expansion of the story with star Mia Goth, but the team even used the same crew from X to secretly make the prequel Pearl. Not only was X a hit with fans, but so was Pearl, and with MaXXXine arriving in theaters this weekend, there's already a proven audience for this series.

If West does realize he wants to return to this world, it likely won't be to follow the trajectory of Maxine. With Pearl serving more as a standalone prequel that connects to X and having little connection to MaXXXine, we wouldn't be surprised to see either a film that explores a supporting character or a story that replicates the spirit of cinema from another decade.

"I'll say that, if there's more to be done in this X franchise, it's certainly not what people are expecting it to be," West shared with Entertainment Weekly this past May. "It's not just picking up again a few years later and whatever. It's different in the way that Pearl was an unexpected departure. It's another unexpected departure."

MaXXXine is in theaters now.

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