Home Entertainment The TAKEN television series casts a viking as its lead

The TAKEN television series casts a viking as its lead

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taken-3

I like the Taken movies. Yes, the second one was a drab misfire, but despite its reputation Taken 3 (or Tak3n) was actually pretty decent. Forest Whitaker got annoying with all of his strange quirks, but at least Liam Neeson’s Bryan Mills was back to business: kicking ass and taking names.

So paint me eager for a television spin-off.

Last year news broke that a Taken television series is being planned. The project has since grown, including the latest announcement of the lead role. The show has tapped Clive Standen to step into the shoes of a younger Mills, as the TV show will be a prequel to the movies – a way to learn how he got his particular set of skills.

If the name of Standen doesn’t ring a bell, you’d likely know him as Rollo, the brother of uber-viking Ragnar Lothbrok in the TV series Vikings. But this does not mean the departure of the character in the show (which would be odd given Rollo is a bona-fide historical person, not a pseudo-legend as Lothbrok). Standen has confirmed he’s committed to both shows.

All that is good: now for the bad news. The show, which is skipping the pilot phase and going straight into a first season, is appearing on NBC. Yes, the same NBC that scuppered Hellblazer because it had no idea what it was in for. Considering Taken 2 suffered because of an overly PG mentality, I can’t imagine NBC being a good home for the TV series.

Another bit of bad news: Luc Besson is involved. Look, I generally love the man’s work, but he’s not great with TV. Just look at the awful Transporter television series, which gave all its bad habits to the new Transporter movie.

Let’s hope they don’t screw this one up.

Last Updated: February 23, 2016

4 Comments

  1. Heh. I was going to bring up the Transporter TV series. That was terrible.

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    February 23, 2016 at 14:31

    It’s actually kinda perfect, the next movie is T4ken, so the TV series can be called TakenV.

    Reply

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