The Purge franchise creator James DeMonaco thought he had reached the end of the series with the fifth film The Forever Purge, which is coming to 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD next week. (Pre-order a copy HERE.) But then he was struck with an idea for The Purge 6 that would bring Frank Grillo back as Leo Barnes, the character he played in The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year. DeMonaco and Grillo are both committed to make The Purge 6, and during a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter the writer/director discussed the inspiration for the new idea and gave some details on what will be going on in the film. If it happens to get made.
DeMonaco told The Hollywood Reporter,
I’ve written [Purge 6]. I didn’t think I was going to write six, but then I woke up about six months ago with an idea. I thought I was definitely finished with The Purge franchise. (Laughs.) And then the events of January 6th happened and the incredible amount of discord in this country came up. So I woke up with this idea, and I pitched it to Jason [Blum] and Sébastien [K. Lemercier], my producers. Eventually, I pitched it to Peter Cramer at the studio [Universal], and they all loved it. They said, “Go write it.” So I just finished it about a month ago, and it also marks the return of the Frank Grillo character, which I think is fun for the audience and for me. I love Frank. It’s the return of the Leo Barnes character. Everything takes place about ten to fifteen years after Forever Purge, and when we enter into the movie, America has been completely remapped. The country has broken down. We’ve taken the divisiveness into remapping the country, and we’ve broken down into very strong tribal lines in this new map of America. So I think it’s an interesting place. I would say it’s like chapter two. We’re restarting in this new world.”
DeMonaco went on to caution that the making of The Purge 6 is not yet a sure thing:
I should also say the movie’s not green-lit. I think they’re still evaluating what happened with Forever Purge and how they feel about what it did during the Covid release. So I know people have seemed to be happy with the idea of the script, but I don’t know yet. We haven’t been given the green light to move ahead.”
While The Forever Purge made a healthy $77 million at the global box office, that is the least any entry in the franchise had made up to this point. Previously, each Purge did better at the box office than its predecessor; The Purge made $89 million, The Purge: Anarchy made about $112 million, The Purge: Election Year ended up at $118 million, and The First Purge boosted up to $137 million. I think that if weren’t for the pandemic, The Forever Purge would have ended up with a number closer to those other ones.