Amy Madigan’s Oscar-Winning Horror Turn Gets Its Own Film With “Aunt Gladys” Prequel
When Amy Madigan won an Oscar for her haunting performance as Aunt Gladys in Zach Cregger‘s Weapons, the victory was extra sweet for horror fans, who finally saw a knockout performance from the genre get the recognition it’s so richly deserved. Now, Madigan’s malicious Gladys is getting her own film with Aunt Gladys, the working title for Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema’s prequel, with Cregger returning to direct and co-writing a script with screenwriter Zach Shields (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire).
The prequel has been in the works for months, following Weapons’ massive box-office success (it grossed $270 million worldwide) and Madigan’s win for Best Supporting Actress. Madigan didn’t just win the Oscar; she also scooped up the SAG-AFTRA Actors Award, the Critics Choice Award, and was nominated for a Golden Globe. All for playing the parasitic witch at the dark heart of the horrors unfolding throughout Maybrook, Pennsylvania, where all but a single child vanish from the same class on the same night at exactly the same time.
Madigan was enthusiastic, if realistic, about reprising her Oscar-winning role at the ceremony. “We know how long stuff takes,” she told the press at the ceremony. “We know what this business is like, and nothing’s real until it is, and timing and all those things. But if it worked out, that would be great, because I trust Zach [Cregger], and he’s got a lot of wacky ideas.”
Madigan’s portrayal of Gladys was one of those rare instantly iconic performances, with a deranged look (those ginger curls, gonzo glasses, and smeared lipstick) and over-the-top, unsettling grandma energy that hid her transgenerational witchery. Madigan’s big Oscar night buoyed a genre that has long been box office gold but often dismissed at awards ceremonies, despite some killer performances in recent years that were deserving of recognition (Toni Collette in Hereditary comes to mind).
Cregger’s next film, Resident Evil, is slated for a September 18, 2026, release. Shields wrote Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is a consulting producer on Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and co-wrote previous Godzilla films Godzilla vs Kong and Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Featured image: Caption: AMY MADIGAN as Aunt Gladys in New Line Cinema’s “Weapons,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
