The action-packed trailer for NBC’s TV adaptation of Taken has a young Bryan Mills showcasing his set of skills.
While the 2008 suspense thriller Taken altered the profile of Liam Neeson from prestigious star of somber dramatic classics such as Schindler’s List into a Chuck Norris-like mythical, hyperbole-generating badass, very few imagined it would become a sequels-spawning multimedia franchise. Indeed, with the 2008-2014 Taken trilogy presumably having run their cinematic course, NBC will bring the embattled Bryan Mills back on the small screen, younger, hungrier and angstier!
The trailer for NBC’s Taken television prequel series has debuted, immediately setting up our revenge-reaping protagonist for an obligatory dose of heartbreaking tragedy. Inheriting the mantle of the CIA’s one-man wrecking crew Bryan Mills from Liam Neeson is a fellow Irishman in Clive Standen, who may be best known for his regular run on Vikings as Rollo, the reckless, sometimes-wavering brother of King Ragnar Lothbrok. Standen’s version of Mills is fresh from his time as a Green Beret and quickly learns that trouble likes to find him and those he loves when his sister is killed in a hostage situation.
However, Bryan’s otherwise impeccable performance in said incident catches the attention of the CIA’s Christina Hart (Jennifer Beals), who, with the gusto of a legwarmers-rocking steel town girl on a Saturday night and some signature CIA-level duress, recruits Bryan, starting a career run of using his famed “particular set of skills” to become a nightmare for criminal scumbags who, for some unfathomable reason, seem to continually gravitate toward ill-advised fatal encounters with him. However, as evidenced from the trailer, the Taken series takes place well before said family was even formed. Thus, not yet tethered to life as a father or even a husband, we’re set to see Bryan Mills in his ruthless, ass-kicking prime on a weekly basis!
The Taken cast will also consist of actors such as James Landry Hebert, Jennifer Marsala, Brooklyn Sudano, Matthew Bennett, Saad Siddiqui and Victoria Snow. Luc Besson, who wrote and produced the original film trilogy, is also onboard the series as an executive producer. The series is set to premiere on NBC on February 27. Check out the trailer below!