With a Purge TV series in development as well as this July’s fourth Purge movie, we’ve now been given some new details on this upcoming small screen offering for the franchise.
Speaking to EW, franchise creator James DeMonaco explained, “I’d say it’s 70, 65% Purge Night and then 30% flashback. We follow four what-seem-to-be-separate storylines of people going out on the evening and experiencing the Purge. The real estate of the ten hours of the TV allows us to use flashback, where we flashback out of the Purge world, into the regular lives, the non-Purge days, of this future America. We get to see who these people are when it’s not Purge Night and the events that led them to where they are on the particular Purge Night that we are following.”
DeMonaco added, “The real estate of TV lets us truly analyse why anyone would resort to violence on Purge Night. So, it’s a slower burn. Whereas the movies are kind of a punch in the face – you know, these big events – I think the TV show, with the real estate of it, allows us to truly analyse why anyone would pick up a gun or a knife to solve a problem. We really get to examine the night, and the intricacies of the evening, and the nuances of the evening, and the different kinds of people who are out on the streets in a way that I just couldn’t do in the movies.”
When we spoke to DeMonaco back at the end of 2016, he was discussing a similar approach to what was then a ‘potential’ TV series. At that point, he explained how he would “follow six or seven people, flashing back and showing how they go to this point of wanting to purge or being purged upon.”
Where The Purge as a franchise stands, it’s easily one of the most fascinating in modern horror. Whether you like the three films to date or not, the premise alone is a hugely interesting one that lends itself to so many possibilities. As such, we’re eager t see what lies ahead both on the big and small screen for the property.
To be titled simply The Purge, the upcoming TV series will star William Baldwin, Lili Simmons, Amanda Warren, Hannah Anderson, Colin Woodell, Lee Tergesen, Gabriel Chavarria, and Jessica Garza. Red Tails and The Wire’s Anthony Hemingway will direct the show’s premiere episode. The series is being executive produced by James DeMonaco and Jason Blum.
As for the next big-screen outing for the franchise, The First Purge is booked in for a July 4th release.