The creator of The Purge, James DeMonaco, explained his concept for a season 3 of the television show. Produced by Blumhouse Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures, the franchise started in 2013 with its original film. It went on to spawn multiple sequels, with the fifth entry, The Forever Purge, hitting theaters this past weekend. Inspired by an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, the series has been quite successful at the box office.
In 2018, The Purge was brought to the small screen with a television series airing on USA Network. The first season takes place in between the second and third films, titled The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year. While this season takes place over the course of the annual night of carnage itself, the second season is set as the night is coming to an end and focuses on a time in between Purges. However, the show was cancelled after the second season in May 2020.
In an interview with Collider, DeMonaco talked about a scrapped idea for season 3 of the television series. While he's not satisfied with the way that the show was cancelled, he explained that he had some ideas brewing for the next season. He wanted to take The Purge outside of the United States and into other countries. However, he noted that the reason the show was cancelled was likely for political reasons. See below for his full comment:
No, between you and I, I wish the TV show went on. I had an idea for Season 3, that I was very excited by. I oversaw the show. I wasn’t showrunning, but we had great showrunners both years, and I was working very closely with them. So, we had more places that we wanted to explore. We were thinking of even going overseas for one of the Purge seasons, with the conceit being that parts of American culture and American society obviously go, so what happens if the Purge starts to spread around the world, the way music does or movies. We wanted to really continue it. USA, unfortunately, for various reasons politically, and I don’t know if they’re even making any original fare anymore. I heard they’re not. Maybe there’ll be a permutation in the future to continue it. What I liked about the TV show was the real estate of having 10 hours to explore the Purge conceit. It was a way to do things like how Season 2 was between Purges. We could never do that in a movie, ever. It was fun to go into the stuff that we could never go into with the films.
Other than directing the movies in The Purge franchise, DeMonaco has only directed the 2009 film, Little New York. While there's nothing set in stone for the future of this series, he will be releasing Once Upon a Time in Staten Island starring Frank Grillo and Naomi Watts next. It'll be interesting to see what will come next for the writer/director.
It's always unfortunate to see a TV series cut short from the creator's vision. DeMonaco clearly has no shortage of ideas for this franchise, as he has been speaking about the possibility of a Purge 6, despite the fact that The Forever Purge was supposed to be the final installment. Grillo has also expressed his excitement about returning back to the role of Leo that he played in The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year. With the television series having come to an end, there's potential that he could incorporate some of these concepts into future films. The idea of having this piece of fictional American culture travel to other countries in the world is an interesting one. With all of the talk about another installment, it wouldn't be too surprising to see more information on The Purge franchise in the future.
Source: Collider
