‘Die Hard 6’ details, prequel concepts, why John McClane so hated
Fans may have thought the Die Hard franchise was truly dead, pun intended, but new life comes as Len Wiseman still plans on making a sixth film in the franchise.
A new report from /Film indicates that the sixth Die Hard will fall somewhere between sequel and prequel in terms of style. The film won’t continue on from where A Good Day to Die Hard left off, but it won’t exclusively rely on the events that transpired before John McClane first set foot in the Nakatomi building in 1988.
After John McClane (Bruce Willis) surviving so much chaos and destruction, Die Hard 6 (or Die Hard: Year One) will literally take the franchise back to its roots. Producer Len Wiseman explained the desire to go back and explore certain facets of the character’s history.
The Die Hard franchise will live on
“For sure, because he can’t be the superhero… It’s a delicate balance of giving you a sense of what started McClane, because McClane when he comes into Die Hard 1 has a lot of emotional baggage, baggage in general moreso than a lot of our other action characters in the sense that he’s already divorced. He’s got an incredible chip on his shoulder. He’s bitter. His captain hates him, doesn’t want him back in New York. What caused all that? Why was he already that guy?”
The very nature of the Die Hard franchise requires that whatever events transpire in the past must take place on a relatively small-scale.
The events of the first Die Hard gave John McClane 15 minutes of fame, the prequel aspects of Die Hard 6 can’t be grandiose enough to draw too much attention to McClane’s exploits. This seems wholly intentional, as a major complaint leveled against the franchise in recent years is that it has gotten to bombastic compared to the grounded nature of the original installment.
That said, it is interesting to explore why McClane seems so down and out at the beginning of the original film, what happened between him and Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), and how an ordinary man such as himself learns to cope with such extreme circumstances.
Wiseman did not elaborate as to whether or not Bonnie Bedelia or the character of Holly McClane would appear in the new film, but it seems like a strong possibility given the prequel aspect.
Likewise, Jai Courtney’s return as McClane’s son is also a possibility with an effort to boost the franchise forward for future films.
Die Hard 6/Die Hard: Year One appears to be moving forward with some sort of role for Willis, so stay tuned.
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