No Liam Neeson? No problem. The Taken
TV show warned US network NBC that if it didn't get a second season, it
would find the Peacock and it would kill it. That threat was clearly
persuasive.
NBC has averted near-certain eradication of its mascot by ordering 16 more episodes of the Taken prequel to air next season, according to Entertainment Weekly.
However, there will be some major creative changes before Taken returns. The action-thriller is in search of a new showrunner as current creative head Alexander Cary is calling it quits.
We suspect uber-badass Bryan Mills is threatening some poor TV writer to sign on the dotted line with Taken right about now.
The spinoff of the blockbuster Hollywood franchise has Vikings' Clive Standen standing in for Liam Neeson as special ops agent Mills at the very beginning of his career.
When speaking with Clive before Taken's launch, he set some lofty standards by comparing the movie adaptation to 24 and Homeland.
"What's so great about the Taken
series so far is... he doesn't have a super-power," he told us. "He's
not Jason Bourne. He's not James Bond, he's not the cool guy with the
witty one-liners.
"Something
really traumatic and tragic happens within Bryan's family and he goes
on a one-man mission, just like he does in the film, to put right what
went wrong.
"He's a one-man wrecking ball. So he doesn't have any particular skills [yet] - he just has a desire to protect.
"He's
on a path to destruction and the CIA find him and they're the ones who
are able to grab him - before he does real damage to himself - and
harness him and that is when he starts to learn that particular set of
skills."
Taken lived up to Clive Standen's hype in outlasting fellow NBC newcomer Powerless, the DC Comics comedy series pulled from the Peacock Network's schedules last month.
