'Glass': M. Night Shyamalan is returning to his crazy world of bizarre superheroes who are, surprisingly, relatable human beings

The only reason anyone is addressed as a super-hero, a guardian, a mutant, or anything superhuman is when that individual is known to have possessed unearthly powers. These very powers make them everything beyond human and this feature is exactly what director M. Night Shyalaman does away within his super-hero universe. Best known for his works in 'Unbreakable', 'Split', 'The Sixth Sense', and 'Signs', Shyalaman's universe consist of heroes who possess anything but superpowers. Let's just say, each of Shyalaman's characters have a Batman-esque charm to them.

When talking about superheroes such as Superman, Flash, Thor, Wonder Woman and so on, the recurring phenomenon in each of them is their ornamentation.

None of these characters are meant to be relatable. They either belong to some other planet, to some other universe, or to an entirely invisible island full of warrior women. There is nothing very human about them as they are placed on a higher pedestal. These are people who are not really people and do not seem to have a single shade of gray in them.

As a complete contrary to these high-functioning super beings, Shyalaman's superbeings are very much human. The director has always taken a unique view of the life and mental state of a superhero and a supervillain.

Consider 'Unbreakable'. Bruce Willis' character David Dunn would have probably never embraced his uniqueness of being unbreakable had it not been for Elijah Price aka Glass (played by Samuel L. Jackson). The two men belong to two extreme sides of the spectrum — Price was born with Type I Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a rare disease that renders sufferers' bones extremely fragile and prone to fracture whereas Dunn managed to survive a train crash without a single scratch on him, thus, becoming 'Unbreakable'.

Unlike most other superheroes, Dunn did not go around seeking answers for what happened to him, instead, he was called out by Price to help him realize everything that he would be capable of. While Price stands in the middle of Shyalaman's arc of good to bad, Dunn will probably lean more towards the hero's side considering the kind of person that he is.

However, the same cannot be told for Kevin Wendell Crumb, James McAvoy's character in 'Split'. Kevin embodied 24 different personalities. While we do not see all 24 of them in 'Split', among the ones that we see at least three are bad. Kevin cannot be categorized as good or bad, but if he is broken to pieces, then it will probably be easier to categorize those pieces.

Shyalaman does cross the line between reality and imagination but unlike the traditional superhero acts of unbelievable bravery, his characters are grounded in their flaws and mishaps. Dunn was a man who would not mind sneaking his wedding ring in his pocket when he meets a handsome, young woman, but at the same time, he takes care that his powers do not hurt anyone.

On the other hand, Kevin is unable to escape those 24 personalities and he succumbs to his 24th identity — The Beast. Both Dunn and Kevin have lives that are beyond ordinary. They do not have control over their lives. Dunn cannot switch off his capability of being unbreakable by simply shutting his eyes, or Kevin cannot switch personalities willfully, like Mystic from 'X-Men'.

They are all puppets in the hands of fate, and they try to do the least that they can to keep themselves alive. Shyalaman's latest movie 'Glass' sees "Dunn pursuing Crumb’s superhuman figure of The Beast in a series of escalating encounters, while the shadowy presence of Price emerges as an orchestrator who holds secrets critical to both men."

Regarding the movie, producer Jason Blum had told Collider, "it’s a kind of superhero movie, for sure. I do consider it that, yeah. It’s very different. I would say it’s not a Marvel movie, but a superhero movie."

As the third installment in Shyamalan's universe of super-individuals who suffer from the kind of sickness that only strikes humans, 'Glass' will bring together all three of them. We can surely expect that there are already clues in the trailer that can probably tell us about the connection between the two movies and 'Glass'. The film is scheduled to be released on January 18, 2019, by Universal Pictures in the United States and by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.