{"id":316281,"date":"2026-02-02T11:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/316281\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T11:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:26:08","slug":"upgrade-producer-dishes-on-the-tv-sequel-that-almost-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/316281\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Upgrade’ Producer Dishes On the TV Sequel That Almost Was"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fans of Leigh Whannell\u2019s sci-fi flick Upgrade<\/a> may recall there was a point where it seemed like it\u2019d get a sequel. It got announced, then reworked into a TV series, and then\u2026nothing, not a peep until last year when Whannell said the film would stay a one-and-done<\/a>. What\u2019s the deal there?<\/p>\n

Well according to Tim Walsh, the film\u2019s producer who was tapped to write and showrun the series, the show faced several obstacles before getting canned. As he recently told BloodyDisgusting<\/a>, he and Whannell sold the project to Peacock back in 2019. Then there was a \u201ctumultuous time\u201d in the world, such as starting his writers room \u201con the day the world shut down\u201d due to the covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Another roadblock was the\u00a0Upgrade show\u2019s plot: it would\u2019ve been about four criminals recently implanted with the STEM chip in the hopes of reforming them, similar to\u00a0A Clockwork Orange. Walsh thinks it\u2019d have been risky to air at a time when shows about the police and criminals were \u201cnot popular,\u201d likely referencing protests against police brutality<\/a> in recent years and discussions of television\u2019s role in sanitizing them. But the biggest killer to the project was above his pay grade\u2014as he tells it, the writers were ready and scripts assembled when a Peacock higher-up was fired. Their eventual replacement then \u201ccame in, thought they knew everything, and dropped the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Walsh\u2019s involvement with the show ended, and he was candid in saying it \u201cstill hurts\u201d it didn\u2019t get made, though he\u2019s sure there were attempts to revive it without him. Despite how things shook out, he still wants to team with Whannell again, so maybe someday he\u2019ll get a chance to revive the Upgrade\u00a0show or craft elements from it onto something else.<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans of Leigh Whannell\u2019s sci-fi flick Upgrade may recall there was a point where it seemed like it\u2019d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[18,117,19,17,63570,13705,128,41247],"class_list":["post-316281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leigh-whannell","tag-peacock","tag-tv","tag-upgrade"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116000796506979807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}