The Purge Election Year: 10 Things You Didn’t Know
By Jeremy Dick
The Purge from Universal Pictures
8. The movie was intended to be a prequel, not a sequel
The Purge: Election Year takes place two years after the events of the previous movie in the series, The Purge: Anarchy. Focusing on a politician’s bid for the White House with the ultimate goal of putting an end to the deadly annual tradition, the Purge shown in the movie just might be the very last for the nation. The senator must try to survive the night, as plenty of high-ranking officials really don’t want that to happen.
What could have happened, however, would have been a prequel movie instead of a sequel. The original concept for the third The Purge film would have been about the first Purge, and how it came to be. However, when director James DeMonaco learned that Frank Grillo had agreed to reprise his role from the second movie as Sergeant Leo Barnes, the plot was rewritten to serve as a direct sequel.
I think it was very interesting to see the political side of things when it comes to this tradition, and the efforts of those looking to put a stop to it. But the prequel idea about the first Purge sounds very intriguing, as well. Maybe another day…
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