Syfy’s 12 Monkeys series is a complete re-imagining, says producer

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

If you’ll recall, Syfy is producing its own spin on the 1995 Terry Gilliam mind-bender 12 MONKEYS, with Aaron Stanford and Amanda Schull starring. While it initially seemed like a difficult proposition to stretch that film out into a whole series, it appears the producers intend to go off in their own direction.

At a recent TCA press junket, executive producer Terry Matalas revealed the show will differ big time from the Bruce Willis pic:

“It’s a complete re-imagining. We’re all big fans of the original film and we didn’t want to just re-do what the movie does. Everything from the top-down changed. While the story has a lot of the same themes, it wouldn’t make sense to tell the same story again.

We didn’t want to just re-do the movie. We changed the rules. In the movie, you can’t change the rules of time. Here, you can.”

All that said, the show still essentially has the same plot: Stanford plays Cole, a time traveler from the post-apocalyptic future who appears in present day on a mission to locate and eradicate the source of a deadly plague that will eventually decimate the human race.

“12 Monkeys” premieres in January 2015.

Amanda Schull