Rising director Kane Parsons, fresh off the viral success of 'Backrooms,' declared he has no interest in directing major franchises like Star Wars or Star Trek. His response challenges Hollywood's deep-seated assumption that all filmmakers aspire to helm big-budget franchises as the ultimate career milestone. The article explores how the industry often treats creative careers as a ladder culminating in franchise work, sometimes viewing those who pursue original projects as 'passing' on an opportunity rather than following a different ambition.
For most filmmakers, being able to direct a Star Wars movie would be considered a career milestone. It's the kind of opportunity directors spend years chasing, and Hollywood certainly treats it that way.
The industry has spent decades positioning major franchises as the ultimate destination for creative talent. Make an acclaimed indie, deliver a breakout hit, and earn the"right" to play with the biggest toys in the sandbox. That assumption is so deeply ingrained that audiences rarely question it anymore. When a director makes something great, the conversation often turns immediately to what franchise they should tackle next.
Success isn't viewed as an achievement itself, it's viewed as a stepping stone toward something larger. Kane Parsons doesn't seem interested in that path. Fresh off the massive success of Backrooms, the 20-year-old filmmaker was recently asked whether he would ever want to direct a major franchise like Star Wars or Star Trek. His answer was a blunt"No." In an industry that treats franchise filmmaking as the dream job, Parsons' response is almost radical.
Hollywood Assumes Every Filmmaker Wants the Same Thing The most interesting part of Parsons' answer isn't that he turned down the idea of directing Star Wars, it's that Hollywood generally assumes every filmmaker wants to. There's a tendency to view creative careers as a ladder. Directors start with small, personal projects before moving on to larger and larger productions. Eventually, if everything goes well, they end up steering a major franchise.
That's often presented as the natural endpoint of success. For some filmmakers, it genuinely is. Others are more interested in creating something that belongs entirely to them. The problem is that those two ambitions are often treated as if they're the same thing.
A filmmaker who chooses to continue pursuing original work can sometimes be viewed as passing on an opportunity rather than pursuing a different goal. The assumption is that everyone wants to arrive at the same destination. Parsons' comments suggest otherwise. They reveal a filmmaker who doesn't see franchise work as an automatic promotion, but as a fundamentally different type of creative exercise.
COLLIDER Collider · Quiz Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against.
Eight questions will figure out which one. 🏕️Jason 🔪Michael 💤Freddy 🎈Pennywise 🪆Chucky TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → QUESTION 1 / 8INSTINCT 01 Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do?
First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty. ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe.
If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again.
DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 2 / 8ENVIRONMENT 02 Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply. ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people.
BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things.
ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 3 / 8STRENGTH 03 What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?
APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me.
DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 4 / 8FEAR 04 What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it. AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see.
CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 5 / 8GROUP 05 You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't. AThe one who says"we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens.
BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 6 / 8MISTAKE 06 What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not. AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind.
BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy.
DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants.
NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 7 / 8ADVANTAGE 07 What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it. AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it.
BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional.
Creativity over brute force. NEXT QUESTION → QUESTION 8 / 8FINAL SCENE 08 It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it?
The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours? AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me.
BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed.
EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it. REVEAL MY VILLAIN → Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against… Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th Jason Voorhees Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit. Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween Michael Myers Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy Krueger Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised. Derry, Maine · It Pennywise Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
Chicago · Child's Play Chucky Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Parsons Knows Exactly What Made 'Backrooms' Work When explaining his answer, Parsons said that filmmaking is a way of processing life. Art, he argued, becomes less meaningful when you're forced to step into someone else's worldview.
The thoughtful response gets to the heart of why Backrooms connected with audiences in the first place: people didn't show up to theaters for Backrooms because it was attached to a beloved brand, they showed up because it was something unusual and different. The movie took a bizarre internet phenomenon and transformed it into something cinematic through Parsons' own perspective. That's the quality Hollywood is actually responding to.
Studios may look at Backrooms and see a young filmmaker capable of handling larger projects. Audiences look at it and see a filmmaker with a distinctive voice. Those aren't the same thing, and Parsons seems aware of that distinction. In the same interview, he also pushed back on reports claiming he was already looking for a writer to help develop a Backrooms sequel.
Given the movie's enormous success, the speculation was understandable. These days, every hit immediately sparks conversations about expansion. His response suggested someone who is less interested in building a brand than continuing to create. Originality Is Still Hollywood's Most Valuable Resource The irony is that Parsons' success story makes a strong argument for his position.
Backrooms became a phenomenon because it offered something audiences hadn't seen before. The same could be said for movies like Get Out, Talk to Me, and Barbarian, Sinners, and so many more. Their appeal wasn't familiarity, it was discovery. Audiences still want to be surprised, but that's easy to forget in an era dominated by existing intellectual property.
Studios understandably gravitate toward recognizable brands because they feel safer, yet some of the biggest horror success stories of the past decade have come from original concepts rather than established franchises. Parsons understands that firsthand. The movie that turned him into one of the industry's most sought-after young directors wasn't a reboot, sequel, or adaptation of a major studio property. It was something strange, niche, and deeply tied to his own interests.
Perhaps he'll eventually direct a franchise movie. He even admitted there are one or two childhood properties that might tempt him, such as a Portal adaptation. If that happens, there's every reason to believe he'd bring something interesting to them. For now, though, his priorities feel refreshingly clear.
Hollywood is always searching for the next great voice, and the best thing the industry can do once it finds one is resisting the urge to immediately lend that voice someone else's story. Backrooms Like Follow Followed R Horror Mystery Science Fiction Release Date May 27, 2026 Runtime 110 minutes Director Kane Parsons Cast See All Writers Will Soodik Producers Chris Ferguson, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson, Michael Clear, Osgood Perkins, Peter Chernin, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy Powered by Expand Collapse
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