The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Vikings star Clive Standen has been cast in NBC’s Taken TV series as CIA operative Bryan Mills, a younger version of the Liam Neeson character from the film franchise.
Homeland‘s Alexander Carry is set to write the script for the pilot episode and will executive produce alongside filmmaker Luc Besson, who wrote and produced the three films and directed the first. Matthew Gross, Edouard de Vesinne and Thomas Anargyros will also executive produce. Alex Graves (Game of Thrones, Homeland) will direct the pilot.
The Taken TV series will offer a prequel of sorts to the films, exploring the early life of the Liam Neeson character. Despite the Taken TV series following a younger Mills, though, it will be set in present day, serving as a prequel to the film franchise in the same way that Bates Motel serves as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
Released in 2009, the first Taken was directed by Pierre Morel and opened to an impressive $226 million worldwide. Two more sequels, directed by Olivier Megaton, were released in 2012 and 2014 bringing the series gross to over $929 million worldwide.
