Lori Evans Taylor to Script ‘Final Destination 7’ After Record-Breaking Hit

Death’s design is far from complete, as New Line prepares to expand one of its most enduring horror properties. Lori Evans Taylor, who co-wrote this year’s box office juggernaut Final Destination: Bloodlines, has been tapped to script the seventh instalment in the supernatural franchise, marking the series’ second consecutive feature after a 14-year hiatus.

Taylor, known for Bed Rest and Cellar Door, will work from the foundation set by Bloodlines, which she co-wrote with Guy Busick from a story by Jon Watts. That film delivered the strongest opening in the franchise’s 25-year history with $51 million, ultimately grossing over $285 million worldwide. The Final Destination series now stands at $983 million globally, making it New Line’s third highest-grossing horror brand behind The Conjuring and It.

Producers Craig Perry, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Jon Watts, Dianne McGunigle and Toby Emmerich will return, with Warren Zide serving as executive producer. Perry, who has overseen every entry since the original 2000 film, has credited the partial prequel structure of Bloodlines – which began in 1969 before leaping ahead 50 years – with giving the franchise fresh creative possibilities.

That historical framing could continue to shape Final Destination 7. Perry has suggested the approach allows stories to be told in different eras and settings, offering scope for new scenarios and increasingly elaborate death sequences. The franchise’s formula, which sees a protagonist foresee a catastrophic event and save a handful of people only for them to die in improbable, interlinked accidents, has remained consistent while varying its backdrops, from aircraft cabins to rollercoasters to NASCAR speedways.

For Taylor, the assignment follows her recent screen adaptation of Carla Norton’s The Edge of Normal, filmed earlier this year with Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead. She is represented by WME, Kaplan/Perrone, and McKuin, Frankel and Whitehead.

With Bloodlines reinvigorating the series both commercially and critically, Final Destination 7 enters development with heightened expectations. If early comments from its producers are any indication, Death’s next appearance may travel to unexpected times and places, but the result will remain inescapable.