The next entry in the PURGE franchise is going to be a prequel that takes us back to the beginning of the Purge, that twelve hour period when all crime is legal in the United States. After the ending of THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR, a prequel seemed like the best option to keep the series going, and PURGE creator James DeMonaco recently provided some information on the prequel that has me very interested in seeing it.
DeMonaco said the version of the purge that will be depicted in the new film, which is set on Staten Island and titled THE PURGE: THE ISLAND, will be an "experimental" one:
I was wondering how you get people to stay for the first Purge, and what they do is they start monetizing it. People from Staten Island can easily go to Brooklyn for the evening, so what they do is start promising very decent sums of money for the very poor people in the neighborhood. It becomes a monetization of murder and violence, incentivizing killing and keeping people around for them to be victims.
Although DeMonaco wrote and directed THE PURGE, THE PURGE: ANARCHY, and ELECTION YEAR, he has taken a step back on THE ISLAND, writing the script while Gerard McMurray takes over the directing duties.
As THE PURGE: THE ISLAND makes its way toward production, McMurray has now signed two actors for lead roles – Y’lan Noel (pictured above) and Lex Scott Davis (below), both of whom you might know from TV shows. Noel starred in the Fuse show The Hustle and had a role on the HBO series Insecure, while Davis was in most episodes of the CBS series Training Day.
Details on the characters Noel and Davis will be playing in THE PURGE: THE ISLAND were not revealed.
Universal will be releasing the film on July 4, 2018.