Sure, One Battle After Another and Sinners might’ve taken home the lion’s share of the awards, but in many ways the 2026 Oscars really belonged to a singular figure: Aunt Gladys. It was she who Conan O’Brien centred his incredible opening skit around, it was she who Amy Madigan won the Supporting Actress Oscar for so indelibly playing in Weapons, and now it is she who’s getting the full-on prequel treatment. Yes, following buzz about an Aunt Gladys movie last summer, Deadline has now confirmed that Weapons writer-director Zach Cregger will pen the prequel — tentatively titled Gladys — with Zach Shields (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Krampus).
As we shared last August when Gladys first started making its way through the trades’ grapevine, Cregger and Shields’ prequel is expected to explore how Madigan’s flame-haired eccentric came to be in Maybrook. Tiptoeing around spoilers (seriously, if you haven’t seen Weapons by now then what are you waiting for? Get it watched!), it’s safe to say that Aunt Gladys has a lot of narrative baggage that’d be fascinating to see unpacked properly — and lest we forget, early drafts of Cregger’s blockbuster chiller actually already had a chapter dedicated to Aunt G and her otherworldly manner. As far as we know, said chapter was only excised to tighten up the script of Cregger’s already sprawling movie, and so there’s already a wealth of lore and material to start cooking Gladys with.
Given Weapons‘ Oscar buzz and the fact that Cregger’s Resident Evil is already well on its way (18 Septmber, 2026 folks — save the date!), we would expect that Gladys is not going to be kept waiting any longer than absolutely necessary if Warner Bros. and New Line can help it. But until we hear more, we’re, er, just off out to make sure there’s no blackthorn sticks or engraved bells knocking about anywhere nearby… you can never be too sure.
