Horror master M Night Shyamalan lifting the lid on The Crypt Keeper's tomb for an all-new series of Tales from the Crypt got fans so excited a few years ago — so why did it never actually happen?

That's been the question for so many ever since US cable channel TNT announced it was partnering with Shyamalan for a reboot of Tales from the Crypt as part of a horror programming block, only to then quietly cancel it before ever airing.

Gilbert Carrasquillo Getty Images

Digital Spy decided to get to the bottom of it when recently chatting with director Shyamalan about his new Split and Unbreakable spin-off Glass, and he revealed that legal issues were actually to blame.

"I think it's dead," he admitted to us. "We tried everything that we could. That was so mired in people that had rights to it, constantly mired from the original comic books to the people that did the original show and that was a very contentious era for that show and who was involved and all the stuff that had nothing to do with me, a generation before me.

"I begged them, 'Please just give me the rights, we'll do it this way, you're going to be really happy'. But it didn't work out that way and here we are."

HBO

As Shyamalan mentioned, Tales from the Crypt and The Crypt Keeper were originally the creation of EC Comics in the 1950s, whereas the previous TV version was made by HBO and Warner Bros.

Because of the complicated ownership issues, it sadly looks like the Crypt Keeper won't be escaping from his tomb to crack wise again anytime soon…

On a more positive note for the director, his new film Glass is released in cinemas on January 18, 2019.

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