The planned sixth entry in the hit Die Hard franchise is no longer moving forward, after it spent more than five years in development. One of the series’ producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura, confirmed the news to Polygon that the franchise’s intended next installment, which was set to be both a prequel and sequel, will not get made.
“It’s not happening,” the Transformers and G.I. Joe film series producer revealed “What was really interesting was we actually came up with an idea to do it. It was a project that wasn’t Die Hard [at first], then eventually, [it] shifted over to Die Hard.”
McClane was intended to feature Bruce Willis reprising his famous title role of the franchise’s protagonist, John McClane, in the present day. The project, which was set to shift back and forth between the modern timeline and the 1970’s, well before the events of the first movie, would have featured another actor as the younger version of McClane.
The younger actor would have showcased the character’s early days as a New York City police officer.
“What was interesting about our idea was it allowed you the ability to meet the young John McClane and [also see] Bruce,” di Bonaventura further noted. “It was really interesting in that way. So you sort of got to see both versions of him.
A bit [like The Godfather: Part II].”
The project brought on the writers of The Conjuring, Chad and Carey Hayes, to rewrite the script. Filmmaker Len Wiseman, who helmed Live Free or Die Hard, reportedly signed to direct the prequel-sequel in 2015. However, McClane was abandoned after Disney acquired Fox in 2019,
Willis’ John McClane was last seen on screen in the series’ fourth sequel, 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard, which was helmed by Max Payne director, John Moore. The last entry in the Die Hard franchise was a modest box office hit, having earned a worldwide gross of $304.7 million off of a reported production budget of $92 million.
Despite the commercial success of the series’ fifth installment, di Bonaventura revealed that he doesn’t know what the Walt Disney Corporation and its newly named 20th Century Studios have planned for the franchise’s future.
While the Die Hard series is currently dormant, the companies are currently working on several other projects, including an Aliens television show from Fargo creator, Noah Hawley.