Summary

• Young Kevin Crumb may have appeared in Unbreakable, setting the stage for his role in Split and Glass.
• Kevin's father likely died in the same train crash that led to David Dunn becoming a hero.
• M. Night Shyamalan originally planned for the adult Kevin to be in Unbreakable, expanding the universe of the trilogy.

Glass unites director M. Night Shyamalan's previous films Unbreakable and Split into a shared universe, but there might have been a cameo of Kevin in Unbreakable all along. Released in 2000, Unbreakable was a film ahead of its time, the origin story of a superhero named David Dunn (Bruce Willis), with Samuel L. Jackson portraying Dunn's nemesis, Elijah "Mr. Glass" Price. When Shyamalan's horror movie Split arrived 17 years later, it had a shocking stinger at the end — the 2017 psychological thriller was a secret sequel to Unbreakable.

Split stars James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man suffering from Dissociative Personality Disorder who manifests 24 distinct personalities and kidnaps three teenage girls. This led to a third film, Glass, which sees David Dunn set out to stop Crumb. The connection had always been part of the plan for the directors, as Shyamalan originally intended for Kevin Crumb to be part of Unbreakable. Kevin was only removed from Unbreakable so the narrative could focus on Dunn. However, there is a theory that Shyamalan included an Easter egg in Unbreakable that set the stage for Split.

A Young Kevin Crumb Is In Unbreakable

David Hears Several Voices In A Child's Mind

The young boy who could be Kevin Crumb briefly appears midway through Unbreakable. In the scene when David is testing his ability to sense evil in others, he stands in the middle of a crowded hallway in the stadium where he works as a security guard. As various people walk by David, a woman in red holding the hand of a young boy bumps him on the shoulder, and he hears not just one voice but the echo of multiple voices. It's a quick moment that David doesn't act upon, but this might be the child who, 15 years later, manifested 24 different personalities.

This could be David's earliest encounter with the "The Horde," which ties into how the news report he watches in the diner seems familiar.

In Split, Kevin's psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) has files stating that Kevin lost his father at an early age. His abusive mother raised him, and the years of abuse created all of Kevin's alternate personalities. The quick moment in Unbreakable where these two people bump into David Dunn fits with this being young Kevin. David hears several children's voices calling out in distress. This could be David's earliest encounter with the "The Horde," which ties into how the news report he watches in the diner seems familiar.

Kevin's Dad Likely Died In Unbreakable's Train Crash

The Death Of Kevin's Father Might Tie Him With David & Mr. Glass

In Split, Kevin visits a train and brings flowers before he finally transforms into the Beast to kill the kidnapped girls. The train itself has immense significance in Shyamalan's story: a train accident caused by Elijah Price is how he found David Dunn, but that very same Eastrail 177 train accident could have also led to the death of Kevin's father, who could have been among the 131 passengers who died in that fateful train crash.

Kevin's origin becomes inextricably tied to David Dunn's emergence as a hero and Elijah Price's villainous turn as Mr. Glass.

This led to theories that Kevin's dad was one of the Eastrail 177 passengers. After all, Kevin's father never came home one pivotal night, which left the boy alone with his mother. This means that the train accident ended over a hundred lives but also led to the creation of Kevin Crumb's multiple personalities, including the Beast. If Kevin Crumb's father was on Eastrail 177, Kevin's origin becomes inextricably tied to David Dunn's emergence as a hero and Elijah Price's villainous turn as Mr. Glass.

Was This M. Night Shaymalan's Plan All Along?

M. Night Shyamalan Seemed Prepared To Continue His Story

By his own admittance, M. Night Shyamalan originally planned for David Dunn to fight Kevin Crumb in Unbreakable, but as the adult version of the Beast. Had Unbreakable encompassed the full arc of a superhero movie and not just the origin story, the third act would have essentially been what Split became. Kevin would have kidnapped three teenage girls, and David would have learned about it and set off to save the girls and fight Kevin (this would have replaced Unbreakable's Man in the Orange Jumpsuit).

Shyamalan scaled down Unbreakable's scope to protect the integrity of the story he wanted to tell.

Shyamalan scaled down Unbreakable's scope to protect the integrity of the story he wanted to tell, which was the intimate study of a man who learns he's super and how it impacts his relationship with his family. However, the director held onto Kevin Crumb and saw the potential for the future. He expanded Unbreakable's universe while maintaining the secret that Split was a sequel. Based on the timeline, Kevin would have been a child during Unbreakable, and Shyamalan possibly inserted Kevin as a child in that movie, setting the stage.

With Split, Shyamalan tells the third act of his original Unbreakable story and ties it all together with his trademark "twist" ending, setting the table for Glass. But in hindsight, the clues were there all along, starting with Split's Philadelphia setting and Kevin visiting the train with flowers, which seems to be a callback to Unbreakable's train crash. The Eastrail 177 train crash narratively ties everything together, which puts the focus back on Mr. Glass in the third film.

What Kevin Crumb & David Dunn's Shared Origin Meant For Glass

David Dunn & Kevin Crumb Possibly Bookended The Trilogy

With Glass, M. Night Shyamalan had the chance to tie everything together, including whether the boy was Kevin in Unbreakable. However, Shyamalan never liked easy answers, leaving that question for viewers to determine. The third movie threw everyone together in a shocking way — David Dunn, Kevin Crumb, and Mr. Glass were all in the same psychiatric hospital, cared for by the same doctor. The twist in the movie is that a secret society exists to eliminate people with powers — and this was how they dealt with these heroes and villains.

The same crash that made David a hero also helped create The Beast in Kevin.

Along the way, Shyamalan did reveal one essential detail about Dunn and Crumb's past. Kevin's dad did die in the Eastrail 177 train crash, which means that the same crash that made David a hero also helped create The Beast in Kevin. The fan theory was 100% true in this case, with the horrifying twist that The Beast was glad Mr. Glass caused the accident because the abuse he suffered created his alternate personalities. He was also six at the time, which lines up with Kevin being the boy in Unbreakable. This also created a way for David Dunn and Kevin Crumb to communicate.

David's powers, which allow him to spot people committing crimes, is through psychometry. This allows David to somewhat communicate with Kevin mentally, although The Beast was there to ensure that nothing would result from this other than a brutal fight in the end. It seems a little wrong that Glass saw Kevin killed by a sniper rather than David, and for David to die at the hands of an enforcer from the secret society, but the fact they were created together and then died together seems fitting.