Leigh Whannell is making a follow-up to his sci-fi horror film Upgrade. But it’s not a feature film, instead it’s a whole series. Blumhouse Television and NBCUniversal’s UCP are teaming to adapt the film into a TV series with Whannell returning as director.
The 2018 film starred Logan Marshall-Green as a man fuelled by vengeance after a mugging that killed his wife leaves him paralysed.
When a billionaire tech mogul offers him a computer implant called STEM that allows him to not only walk again, but also tap into extraordinary physical capabilities, he sets out to hunt down the people responsible for his wife’s murder. However, the STEM system starts to take matters into its own hands.
The series reportedly picks up a few years after the events of the film and plans to broaden the universe with an evolved version of STEM and a new host, expanding to explore the world to one where the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.
A writer’s room containing writers of Blumhouse’s The Purge series – Krystal Ziv Houghton and James Roland – has already convened to begin adapting the series’ first season.
What US network will the show air on, though? NBCUniversal owns NBC, USA Network, and Syfy just to name a few, in addition to their streaming service Peacock. The Upgrade series could land on any of them, and what network or streaming platform it ends up on could shape the tone of the show. For a film that was so brutal, that might be key. So we’ll wait and see.
#Peace.Love.Upgrade
