Although Taken 3 was Liam Neeson’s final outing as retired CIA agent Bryan Mills, according to Deadline, NBC has given a straight-to-series order to a Taken prequel drama, which will focus on a younger version of Mills. The site states that much of the series will be about how the character developed his “very particular set of skills” that he famously mentions in the first Taken film.
The show will take place before Mills gets married or has a child, and interestingly enough, it will be set in present day and not in the past.
Currently, Luc Besson, who produced all three of the Taken films, is on board as an executive producer, along with Matthew Gross, EuropaCorp Television U.S. president, and Edouard de Vesinne and Thomas Anargyros, EuropaCorp Television co-chairs. A writer/showrunner for the series, however, has not been found yet.
Reviews for each Taken film seemed to get worse and worse as the series went on, but regardless, they all managed to bring large amounts of cash at the box office. Back in 2008, Taken was a surprise hit, raking in over $226 million worldwide on a $25 budget, while 2012’s Taken 2 made over $376 million on a $45 million budget. Some expected the series to lose steam with its final installment, but the film performed extremely well, coming up only about $50 million short of the previous film’s total gross on a similar budget.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qvTY7eXXIMg
Originally published September 18, 2015. Updated April 14, 2018.
