--- title: Taken TV Series: NBC Orders Prequel Show description: NBC announced a straight-to-series order for a prequel based on Taken, the 2008 action thriller starring Liam Neeson. canonical: https://time.com/4040456/taken-prequel-tv-series/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-18T19:09:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:24:55.269Z og:title: A "Taken" Prequel TV Series Is In The Works At NBC og:description: A very particular set of storylines og:url: https://time.com/4040456/taken-prequel-tv-series/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A "Taken" Prequel TV Series Is In The Works At NBC twitter:description: A very particular set of storylines twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A _Taken_ Prequel TV Series Is In The Works At NBC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 18, 2015 7:09 PM UTC  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Sep 18, 2015 7:09 PM UTC NBC announced a straight-to-series order for a prequel based on _Taken_, the 2008 action thriller starring Liam Neeson, according to [Deadline](http://deadline.com/2015/09/taken-prequel-tv-series-nbc-luc-besson-1201532541/). The box office hit spawned a franchise that includes two sequels, _Taken 2_ and _Taken 3_, and arguably one of the most quotable lines of all time. Centering on a young Bryan Mills, played in the movies by Neeson, the series will focus on the character before he becomes a retired CIA agent on a quest to save his kidnapped daughter. It will tell the story of how Mills came to have this famous “particular set of skills.” Intriguingly, the show will be [set in modern times](http://tvline.com/2015/09/17/taken-prequel-series-nbc-liam-neeson-movie/) rather than decades earlier, skewing the timeline of the story. Luc Besson, who co-wrote the films, will serve as the reboot’s executive producer. However, the show is still searching for a series writer and showrunner. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4040456/taken-prequel-tv-series/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4040456/taken-prequel-tv-series/"},"headline":"A Taken Prequel TV Series Is In The Works At NBC","datePublished":"2015-09-18T19:09:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:24:55.269Z","description":"A very particular set of storylines","url":"https://time.com/4040456/taken-prequel-tv-series/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Television","movies","NBC","entertainment","liam neeson","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4040456/taken-prequel-tv-series/","name":"A Taken Prequel TV Series Is In The Works At NBC"}}]}] ```