'THE PURGE' Creator Wants To Revisit Original Movie Characters in New TV Series

The thing about franchises is you have to start off with a bang and ‘THE PURGE’ came on the scene in 2013 and creator James DeMonaco is keen to bring back Lena Headey and the rest of the Sandin clan in a new TV series.

The dystopian future where The Purge took place was a brand new idea where the United States has implemented an annual event known as "The Purge." During this 12-hour period, all crime, including murder, is legal and emergency services are suspended. The franchise explores the consequences and social implications of this government-sanctioned event. The film was a huge commercial success and spawned four sequel films and a network television show which ran for two seasons.

If you remember at the end of the first film, James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) meets his demise but now, director DeMonaco has revealed we may not have seen the last of the Sandin family, as he discussed the future of the franchise in an interview with Collider.

DeMonaco enthusiastically confirmed that he would love to revisit the family and examine the mental scarring that would have occurred after what they went through. DeMonaco believes the family would have left the community they were in, with Headey's character Mary never truly at ease with what the Purge represented, as opposed to her husband who recognized its potential to make money in a capitalist society — which ended up being his ultimate downfall.

"Absolutely. I always wanted to follow them up," said DeMonaco. "And listen, if the strike ends and we get a chance, there is talk of doing an interesting take on a TV show where I would be able to do that because we'd be able to explore very intimate Purge stories, but I don't know if that's true, but I hope." DeMonaco continued, saying:

"I think they move away. I would say they would do what I did. I think a family that experiences that much trauma and loss on that night – and Lena’s character I always thought, way more than James, the Lena Headey character was questioning The Purge in a way that he wasn't. He was just accepting the financial rewards of selling security systems. Lena always said she wanted to play it like she was dead inside, that the mere fact that The Purge existed had killed her soul.

So she kind of wanted to play it, and I think she plays it beautifully. She's constantly kind of looking at her reflections and contemplating quietly what this all means. I think if you experience that level of trauma you exit pretty quickly the country. I don’t think you can buy into a government system that sanctions this. I always want to follow the Sandins on that journey to another country, which is what I thought it would be. But then that country maybe starts purging, too, and the cycle of crap continues in the world."

Admitting that television allowed for a deeper exploration of what the Purge itself means to different groups of people, DeMonaco elaborated by saying that, while the films are summer movies designed to be explosive by nature, television has allowed for a more nuanced approach to storytelling.

"Absolutely. That's what I was thinking. I think it would be a great way – I can't give away the conceit, but it opens it up in a way that the canvas would be, we can pay attention to a lot of people," he said. "The movies always have to be, as you know, they’re summer releases, July 4th. They have this kind of momentum, like a punch in the face. I always say I'm not the most nuanced filmmaker in The Purge world because we're kind of just really slamming both the messaging and the story points home in that 95 minutes we have."

You can check out more of what DeMonaco had to say at Collider and we may just get that Purge series once the WGA strike is over.

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