Hulu’s Prison Break Update Confirms Major Changes from Fox’s Beloved Original

While the mid-2000s had some notable television series, there are few as beloved and iconic as the crime drama Prison Break. Airing for five seasons on Fox, the series centered around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield, and with Lincoln wrongly sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit, Micheal cooks up an elaborate plan to help his brother escape. The series has remained popular since its release, so much so that it’s getting a Hulu reboot but when it comes to that new take on the fan-favorite series, viewers can expect some big changes.

Lukas Gage, who will star in the upcoming series as a politician running for Congress for the first time, revealed that Hulu’s new Prison Break will be much darker than the original, per Variety.

“It’s gritty and it’s dark and it’s scary,” Gage said. “We definitely pay homage to the old series, but it’s a very new take on it, and Elgin has such a personal connection to the story and personal take on it that is very different. So, it’s a right balance of not trying to recreate the magic of what was the original show, but it’s on Hulu, too. It’s not Fox, so we can get really gritty on this one.”

Will It Really Be Prison Break If It’s Completely Different?

The idea that Hulu’s reboot of Prison Break will be darker, grittier, and scarier may seem like a big shift, but by itself it isn’t that much of a surprise. The difference between network television and streaming does allow for series to push boundaries a bit more—not to mention that what is acceptable on television today is different than what it was when the series first aired. The real issue, however, is that the new Prison Break is reportedly going to be an entirely different story with completely new characters that just so happens to take place in the same world the original Prison Break is set in.

It’s that that has some questioning how much Prison Break this new series will be. Part of what made the original series so popular was the story of the brothers (played by Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller) and, specifically, the extreme lengths Michael was going to to save Lincoln so to an extent, fan worry isn’t without merit. That said, it is entirely possible that the new series will have a similarly strong emotional hook. The series is set to star Emily Browning as Cassidy Collins, a former soldier turned corrections officer who goes to work at one of America’s deadliest prisons to prove how far she’s willing to go for someone she loves. In addition to Gage, the series will also feature Drake Rodger, Clayton Cardenas, JR Bourne, Georgie Flores, and Myles Bullock.

It also could be a very good choice by the showrunners to move away from the story of the original series and do something more original with Cassidy’s story. Prison Break was very popular in its day and remains a streaming hit. It would be a very difficult job to try to redo something so loved.

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