I’ve been excited since first hearing that Syfy was planning on bringing ‘12 Monkeys‘ to the small screen. With how much story there was in the movie, I really wasn’t concerned on it being turned in a 13-episode season. What had concerned me was how it would be a multi-season show. Well co-executive producer Terry Matala chimed in on that very concern and expanded on what we’ll be seeing when when the series premieres.

While the show will be based on the broad concepts from Terry Gilliam’s novel, it is going to end up as a “gritty time-traveling show.” We will still follow Cole who has been sent back from the post-apocalyptic future and is trying to identify and destroy the source of the plague, but things are going to stray from the original plot from there.

“It’s a complete reimagining. We were all big fans of the original film and had a deep love and respect for the material. We didn’t want to just redo what the movie does. Everything from the top down changed … We wanted it to be grounded and closer to a thriller but that’s not to say we wont play with tone.”

Amanda Schull, who stars in the series, explained that “this isn’t a cover band of the film, ” while co-executive producer Travis Fickett added in that “It doesn’t make sense to tell the same story again.”

During the course of the run, Cole will end up in a range of eras from World War 1 to the 1980’s and more. With some of the characters and plots from the original film will be touched upon, we’ll also see new characters and situations.

I’m quite eager to see where the show will be going and what other time periods might be teased.

Are you looking forward to Syfy’s take on ’12 Monkeys’? Do you think that a complete re-imagining is the way to go? Share your thoughts below on what you’d like to see changed or stay the same in the upcoming series!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter