CONFIRMED: ‘Die Hard’ Prequel Will Star Bruce Willis As John McClane AGAIN

At 60-years-old, it appears that Bruce Willis will return to the big screen to play John McClane yet another time. Yippe Ki Yay, motherfuckers!

Again, Willis will be reprising his New York City cop role, however, the project is set to be a prequel to the first Die Hard.

The news of the sequel-but-really-a-prequel was broken on Twitter by director Len Wiseman some time ago, but now details are emerging about the character Willis is set to resurrect.


Reportedly, Die Hard: Year One will take place on New Years Eve 1979, and seeks to explain the origins of the disgruntled NYC cop with a knack for preventing national tragedies from escalating.

During an interview with Collider‘s Christina Radish about his upcoming TV project Lucifer, Len Wiseman shared many details about the plot for the sixth installment in the Die Hard series.

In Wiseman’s own words:

“After doing the fourth one, there were so many conversations that Bruce [Willis] and I were having about what he put into the character for Die Hard 1. That character comes in with so much baggage, emotionally, and experience. He’s already divorced, he’s bitter, his Captain hates him and doesn’t want him back. So, what created that guy?”

“We’ve never seen the actual love story. We know its demise, but we’ve never seen what it was like when he met Holly, or when he was a beat cop in ‘78 in New York when there was no chance of him making detective. It’s always been something I’ve been thinking about, and now we’re doing it. And it ties in.”

“The reason I say prequel/sequel is because I wasn’t going to do it without Bruce. I’m also not going to do it with Bruce being a cameo bookend gimmick. It’s really working into the plot, with the ‘70s having ramifications on present-day Bruce. It inter-cuts in a very fun, imaginative way with present-day John McClane.”

“The film itself will take place on New Years’ Eve 1979, so trying to gear things towards that would be fun, if we could come out around the same time, but these movies take their own paths.”

“It has to be somebody that has the swagger and the confidence, but also the charm, the wit, the charisma and the toughness. It’s asking a lot, especially in somebody that’s younger. It has to feel like the guy owns it, rather than is trying to put it on.”

So my next question is, who’s going to get cast as the younger John McClane?

And how much shit does he get to blow up?

[h/t Metro]