One of the creepiest horror franchises of recent years is The Purge, which currently consists of three films and a fourth to be released next summer. We reported last month that The Purge would be coming to TV as a brand new series, although we didn't have much in the way of details. Now, we finally know more about what will happen when the series kicks off. Jason Blum of the Purge's production studio Blumhouse had this to tease about the show:
It will reveal to the fans what happens the other 364 days of the year and how that law affects people.
The Purge films focus on a span of twelve hours of one day ever year in which all crime is perfectly legal. There has been plenty of grotesque horror to be found in those twelve hours in the first three movies, so there hasn't been much focus on what happens in the dystopian society during the rest of the year when murder and mayhem aren't reigning. According to Jason Blum at the NBC upfronts presentation (via Deadline), the TV show will fill in a lot of the blanks left by the movie.
The chances are pretty good that the tone of the show will stay true to the tone of the movies, even without all the murder. Film franchise creator James DeMonaco is on board the series as writer, director, and executive producer. If anybody can craft a TV project that could fit right into the Purge universe, that person would absolutely be James DeMonaco. Of course, he won't be able to get away with everything on TV that he could get away with on the big screen, but it should be fun to see where he goes with the series.
The Purge show will air on both USA and Syfy, where it will debut in 2018 at some point. 2018 will also see the release of the fourth film in the franchise, which is currently slated to hit theaters in July. The new movie will reportedly be a prequel that chronicles what happened in the U.S. that resulted in the establishment of a widely-accepted Purge Night. We can't say just yet if the show will also take place in a prequel era or if it will take place in the same timeline as the first three movies. What we can say is that 2018 will bring us plenty of new Purge to enjoy. Hopefully both the new movie and the new show will be able to take viewers in some exciting new directions without losing the edge that made the first three movies so scary.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in TV news, and don't forget to check out our summer TV premiere schedule to discover all your viewing options now and in the coming weeks. Be sure to drop by our rundowns for cable/streaming and broadcast TV renewals and cancellations as well. Our TV season finale schedule can give you all you need to know about your shows ending.
