Dominic Purcell and Wentworth Miller, Prison Break
FoxWhile the original Prison Break series was never particularly well liked by critics, Fox’s hugely entertaining drama series was popular enough with viewers that it just couldn’t let it go. Even after the series was canceled, it came back for more twice — first with a direct-to-video movie that attempted to give the series a real ending not long after Season 4 aired, and a not-particularly-well-liked revival season in 2017. That would probably have been the end of things, had the series not blown up on Netflix in 2024.
Hulu initially began developing a new Prison Break series in 2023 before the original show’s viral explosion, and that success helped spark an order to series in October 2025. While it may feel like this reboot has spent a long time in development, that’s probably not a bad thing — it’s almost certainly better than rushing it out to capitalize on a trend, anyway.
Plans for the new series are starting to become a bit clearer at this point, and we know some of the key details, such as who’s breaking out of prison this time, the broad strokes of what the story is about, and the new, very different prison that the cast will have to escape from. So read on to see everything we know about the new version of Prison Break.
Prison Break reboot expected premiere date
Since the rebooted Prison Break has been ordered to series, things are starting to get very real for the upcoming show. While no dates have yet been mentioned in any official announcements, and we don’t know if the rest of the season beyond the pilot has been written yet, we’d be surprised if we made it to the end of 2026 without a new Prison Break premiere.
Prison Break reboot storyline
The original show opened with Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) robbing a bank and getting sent to prison for it — but it’s all part of his plan to help save his half-brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), who’s locked up in the same prison but on death row for a murder he was framed for by a secret organization known only as The Company. While we don’t have any concrete details about the reboot’s plot, a scoop from TVLine includes some key info about some of the characters that may shed some light on what’s coming.
There are six characters teased in the TVLine scoop, as well as a setting. The Prison Break reboot will take place in a mixed-gender prison, which should make for a big shift after the original show only had four women, total, included among its main cast members across its four seasons. Indeed, three of the characters mentioned in TVLine’s scoop are women, including a former U.S. Army Ranger who is now a corrections officer, which is the role that Emily Browning will play, and a pregnant inmate whose significant other is also imprisoned there. As for the men, we’ve got an inmate who didn’t do the crime that he’s in prison for (Drake Rodger), another inmate who’s been tasked with killing the innocent guy, and a candidate for the U.S. senate (Lukas Gage) who’s pals with the former Army Ranger.
“It’s gritty and it’s dark and it’s scary,” Gage told Variety at the premiere of his new Netflix movie, Voicemails to Isabelle. “We definitely pay homage to the old series, but it’s a very new take on it, and Elgin has such a personal connection to the story and a personal take on it that is very different. So it’s a right balance of not trying to recreate the magic of what was the original show, but it’s on Hulu, too. It’s not Fox, so we can get really gritty on this one.”
Yes, that means you can expect a show with a lot more cursing and violence this time. Though it’s worth noting the original show had a surprisingly hard edge for a network series, with one of the main characters, Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell, being an unrepentant rapist and murderer for the entire four seasons he was on the series.
Prison Break reboot cast
The cast for the new series is coming along, with the core cast and a number of notable guest stars already lined up. The main cast includes Emily Browning as a prison guard who’s seemingly going to try to bust somebody out, Lukas Gage as a young politician, and Drake Rodger, Clayton Cardenas, JR Bourne, Georgie Flores, and Myles Bullock as inmates. Assuming Flores is playing the pregnant inmate mentioned in the previous section, that should be a role to watch.
A number of key guest roles on the new Prison Break pilot were filled with veteran TV folks, per Variety. We’ve got Margo Martindale taking on the role of the prison warden, which is perfect, alongside Donal Logue, Lili Taylor, and Ray McKinnon. McKinnon will play a private detective investigating an old murder — presumably the one that Drake Rodgers’ character was wrongly convicted for. Logue will play a father mourning the loss of his family, and Taylor will play a mom seeking the truth.
Prison Break reboot cast:
Is anybody coming back from the original Prison Break series?
None of the original cast members is even rumored to be returning for the new version of Prison Break, but because the reboot will still take place in the Prison Break universe, it leaves the door open for folks to potentially return later on. But that might not be as simple as you’d think. Wentworth Miller, who is gay, revealed publicly years ago that he’s completely done playing straight characters, which Miller has specifically said means he’s done with the Michael Scofield character. And it would be surprising if Dominic Purcell, who played Michael’s brother, and Sarah Wayne Callies, who played his wife, showed up without Miller.
For now, that means we should expect the new series to do its own thing for the most part, while still allowing it to connect more directly with the original series should circumstances allow them to bring some of the old characters back. And new series star Lukas Gage has indicated that that’s part of the plan, as he mentioned to The Hollywood Reporter that “we might see a couple of OGs coming back” for the rebooted series. Since we haven’t heard any rumors about anybody coming back for the reboot, there’s not much point in making guesses about who he’s referring to. But this might refer to supporting characters rather than the core group of escapees, or even just brief cameo appearances.
Who’s in charge of this Prison Break reboot?
Mayans MC co-creator and showrunner Elgin James is also the boss on the Prison Break reboot, and that, combined with the move from network to a streaming home, likely means that the new version of the show will have a somewhat different vibe than the original did when it aired on network TV 20 years ago. Though Prison Break was fairly rough for a network series, as it featured a white supremacist rapist as one of its main characters from beginning to end, the reboot will be able to get away with a lot more TV-MA stuff, like cursing, violence, and sex, on Hulu.
Where to watch Prison Break
While Prison Break had a massive resurgence in popularity in 2024 on Netflix, the series is once again available to stream on Hulu.