Of all the TV remakes and revivals that recent years have granted us with, perhaps one of the most unexpected is Fox's upcoming return to Prison Break's universe, considering one of its main characters was dead when the show ended. And as some might have expected, we all have The Flash to thank for the project coming together in the first place, but then we also have Legends of Tomorrow to blame for keeping things limited. Here's co-lead Wentworth Miller talking about reconnecting with Dominic Purcell as The Flash's Rogues.
We hadn't seen each other in about five years. And we were back on set, talking about old times, and out of that conversation came the possibility of revisiting Prison Break.
No doubt that Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell were NOT the first people to start talking about revisiting Prison Break because of their Flash roles. As soon as it became clear the two actors would be on TV again together, similarly on the opposite side of the law, the fanbase erupted with speculation that Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows would one day find themselves at the end of another dangerous escape. We're all used to TV logic bringing people back from the dead by now, so that was just a technicality, as was making sure everyone else in the cast could also come back.
And sure enough, it was just eight months after The Flash premiered on The CW that the Prison Break revival was put into development, so it's safe to assume Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell didn't develop any newfound antagonism towards each other on the acting side of things. In fact, the two went off to co-star in the spinoff Legends of Tomorrow, currently in its second season. As it happens, the superhero ensemble drama also affected the in-development Prison Break season, as the actors weren't able to switch their schedules around to film all ten episodes.
According to executive producer Paul T. Scheuring, who spoke to reporters at the TCA winter press tour (via TVLine), the creative team had to go back and modify things after it became clear the actors were stuck.
I'd written a very long-winded road map for the 10 episodes. We just didn't have enough time for 10 hours, so we conflated two of those episodes into one. There's no time for bullshit. This is a very tight close-ended story. It's constant thriller, cliffhanger, revelation. It's very dense.
Everyone wants as much time as possible to spend with characters they love, but I guess it's hard to knock this situation if it means Prison Break's new episodes will be that much tighter and fluff-free when they arrive. And if Michael has a tattoo of Central City on his back, or if Linc starts solving all his problems with flame-throwers, we'll understand.
Prison Break's upcoming new season feels like it should have gotten here already, but we'll be waiting for it to escape and find its way to our eyeballs on Tuesday, April 4, at 9 p.m. ET. To see when everything else is hitting the small screen in the coming months, head to our midseason premiere schedule.
