A new Prison Break series is coming

As long as there are prisons in this country, there will be inmates trying to break out of them. Just look at the story of Danelo Cavalcante, a felon from Pennsylvania whose crab-walking escape made national headlines early last month. While we’re sure the timing of this story was just a coincidence and didn’t actually inspire Hulu’s new Prison Break spinoff, it will be interesting to see if any creative methods like Cavalcante’s make it into the script.

According to Deadline, the new series is in the early stages of development and will eventually release on Hulu. It is being written by Elgin James, who already has experience building off a pre-existing universe through Mayans M.C., his Sons Of Anarchy spinoff. James, along with Stephen Merchant, is also the co-creator behind BBC’s Christopher Walken-starring The Outlaws.

James’ new series is not expected to feature characters from what is now the original Prison Break. That series ran for five seasons on Fox—from 2005-2017—and was hugely popular. Created by Paul Scheuring, the series follows two brothers, played by Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller, after one is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and the other devises an elaborate scheme to break him out. Other stars included Amaury Nolasco, Sarah Wayne Callies, Paul Adelstein, Rockmond Dunbar, Inbar Lavi, Mark Feuerstein, Robert Knepper and Augustus Prew.

This new Prison Break won’t be the first spinoff from the original series. The show also inspired a made-for-TV movie titled Prison Break: The Final Break in 2009 and a low-budget spinoff called Prison Break: Proof Of Innocence in 2006. That second series was made exclusively for mobile phones—yes, “mobile phones,” the iPhone wouldn’t be released until 2007—and featured 26 “mobisodes” with names like “Proof,” “Trust,” “Panic,” and “Freedom.” We know the pressure on showrunners must be off the charts, but James is really going to have to deliver if he wants to one-up the likes of that.