Luc Besson‘s “Taken” franchise is expanding, with a prequel series following a younger version of Liam Neeson‘s character, Bryan Mills, getting a straight-to-series order at NBC, TheWrap has learned.
Universal Television is producing with EuropaCorp, the production company belonging to film director Besson.
In “Taken,” Neeson’s Mills plays retired CIA agent with “a very particular set of skills” who tracks down his daughter after she is abducted by terrorists. The series will follow a younger version of Mills, before he was married or had children, as he develops those skills.
No showrunner has yet been set for the series.
Besson will executive produce with EuropaCorp Television U.S. president Matthew Gross and EuropaCorp Television co-chairs Edouard de Vesinne and Thomas Anargyros.
NBC previously worked with EuropaCorp on the since-canceled summer series “Taxi Brooklyn.”