Len Wiseman's 'Underworld' TV Series Is Still In Development

Grab your leather pants and blue light bulbs, the oft-rumored Underworld TV series is still happening. At least, that's what Underworld mastermind Len Wiseman says. So if you haven't had enough of vampires vs. werewolves inside a Matrix simulator, you're in luck! There's more coming your way, on a weekly basis! Sink your fangs into more details about the Underworld TV series below.

Wiseman first mentioned a possible Underworld TV series in 2014, later reaffirming in 2016 that the project was still going to happen. "[T]here's been a lot of conversations and even development on what that series would be," Wiseman said at the time. "It's really appropriate for television, in terms of how those characters can really tie in, but also become something new. It's really an attractive space. I don't want to put a date on it because then that's going to be printed and it might not happen in that timeframe, but it is a thought."

Now Wiseman is back at it, telling Deadline that the Underworld TV series is finally moving forward. "The series will be a pretty big departure from the films," the director said. "I don't want to say it's more adult, but it's definitely less comic book in its tone and character." A "pretty big departure from the films" could mean a lot of things, and give Wiseman and company a lot of freedom to run wild with the material without being too beholden to the film franchise.

Wiseman kicked-off the Underworld series in 2003 with the first in the franchise. It would spawn four sequels, only one of which – 2006's Underworld: Evolution – was helmed by Wiseman. The series primarily focuses on Selene (Kate Beckinsale), who spends her afterlife as a death dealer: a vampire specifically trained to kill Lycans, aka werewolves.

The first Underworld was imagined as something of a supernatural Romeo and Juliet, with Beckinsale's vampire character falling for a werewolf (Scott Speedman) and the trouble that results of it. Really, though, the film was an excuse to cash-in on the leather and latex bullet-time action that The Matrix had made so famous. From there, the franchise just kept building on its gloomy mythology, adding more and more characters and subplots and somehow continuing on all the way into 2016 with Underworld: Blood Wars. Blood Wars did not set the box office on fire, which perhaps may have inspired some to believe that the Underworld series was finally dead and buried. Apparently though, Wiseman is hellbent on keeping this franchise going, and will do so via the proposed TV series.

Next up, though, Wiseman will helm the next Die Hard sequel, which will feature Bruce Willis' John McClane character both in modern times and also 1970s New York. This is a really bad idea, but then again, it's not like the Die Hard series can sink much lower.