Leatherface’s real name has gone through a few changes over the years. Unlike horror contemporaries Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, Leatherface typically isn’t referred to by his birth name. He simply goes by the moniker Leatherface in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). It wasn’t until The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986) that audiences were introduced to the Sawyer family proper, with Leatherface’s name revealed to be Bubba Sawyer.
The Michael Bay-produced 2003 remake changed the cannibalistic family’s surname from Sawyer to Hewitt. In this continuity, Leatherface’s full name was Thomas Brown Hewitt. Then in 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D, which functioned as a direct sequel to the original, Leatherface’s name was changed again to Jedidiah Sawyer. But which of these names, if any, is Leatherface’s real name according to canon?
Leatherface’s name was Bubba Sawyer in the first two movies. Whether or not Bubba was a nickname is unknown, but that’s the name he went by. The timeline already gets fuzzy by the third film, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), since it retcons the events of TCM 2 — namely, Leatherface and the entire Sawyer family being exterminated. This makes TCM 3 a direct sequel to the original, which is a popular trend now with series reboots like Halloween (2018) and the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022). Leatherface was referred to as “Junior” in TCM 3, with the family’s surname remaining Sawyer.
It’s worth noting that the fourth film in the series, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994), changed the family name from Sawyer to Slaughter. This can be seen as the first reboot of the franchise as it shared virtually no connection to the original other than Leatherface and his family of cannibals. However, despite starring big-name celebrities Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger in early roles, the less that’s said about The Next Generation, the better.
When the film was remade in 2003, the Sawyer family backstory was scrapped in favor of a new lineage — the Hewitt family. In broad strokes, the Hewitts followed the same blueprint as the Sawyers, with Leatherface still acting as the family’s butcher. Leatherface was known as Thomas Brown Hewitt in this film and in its 2006 prequel. It’s unknown as to why the filmmakers decided to change the family’s backstory, other than to have a fresh start for another short-lived timeline.
Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013) added another ripple in the Leatherface mythology by changing his name once more to Jedidiah “Jed” Sawyer. As a direct sequel to the original, Texas Chainsaw 3D implied that Leatherface’s real name was Jedidiah Sawyer back in 1974’s TCM. The name Jedidiah Sawyer was kept in the subsequent origin story, Leatherface (2017). There was a Hewitt child named Jedidiah in the 2003 remake, but given the horribly mismatched timelines, it amounts to little more than an Easter egg.
Leatherface’s constant name changes likely contributed to the fact that his real name was never well-known to mainstream audiences. Casual moviegoers will recognize the names Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, but those same moviegoers will scratch their heads when they hear the names Bubba Sawyer, Jedidiah Sawyer or Thomas Hewitt. When someone asks who the chainsaw-wielding killer is in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, the answer is always Leatherface.
The closest parallel to this phenomenon is Charles Lee Ray in the Child’s Play films, who used a voodoo ritual to transfer his consciousness into the infamous killer doll, Chucky. The 2019 Child’s Play remake did away with the Charles Lee Ray character and voodoo angle completely, turning Chucky into a malfunctioning AI doll. The point is, the “stage names” for these slasher icons ended up informing the characters even more so than their birth names. So, what is Leatherface’s real name? To put it bluntly, it’s Leatherface.
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