Bruce Willis’ appearance in Die Hard: Year One will be more than a cameo

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Unfortunately it seems like DIE HARD is one franchise that doesn't know when to quit. A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD received such a thrashing by critics and fans that I honestly thought that would be it for the franchise. However, as we know now, that's not the case and the series will continue…by going back to its roots. DIE HARD: YEAR ONE will be a prequel which will place much of the action in 1979, when John McClane "was a cop in gritty New York City and showing how he became a die hard kind of guy." As you can't have a DIE HARD flick without Bruce Willis, it was reported that the increasingly disinterested actor would appear in scenes book-ending the 1979 story-line.

Those of you who were wishing for more of Bruce Willis' John McClane will be pleased by this latest development; /Film caught up with Len Wiseman at the Television Critics Association where Wiseman confirmed that Willis' appearance in the film will be more than a mere book-end cameo.

He will be more present than that. This character of course is modern day and the origin story if you can call it that has ramifications on present day McClane. What it’s not is it’s not a cameo bookend scenario. It’s a prequel/sequel hybrid that I really haven’t seen before and is incredibly different.

Whatever it is that young McClane gets himself involved with, Len Wiseman is aware that it can't be so earth-shattering that he's already a superhero before the Nakatomi hostage situation in the first DIE HARD. Wiseman also seems quite interested in exploring just what made John McClane the man with the "incredible chip on his shoulder" that he is in DIE HARD, asking "what caused all that? Why was he already that guy?" I wish I could say that knowing Bruce Willis will have more to do in DIE HARD: YEAR ONE than we previously thought is a comfort, but he just seems so bored with everything now that I was almost looking forward to the burst of energy that a younger John McClane would hopefully bring to the film. Almost.