Deadline is reporting that Blumhouse Television and UCP are developing a sequel television series for Upgrade, with writer/director Leigh Whannell attached as co-creator and executive producer alongside Tim Walsh (Treadstone; Shooter), who will serve as the showrunner.
Whannell will also return to direct, but it's not clear whether he will helm just the pilot or the entire first season. In addition to Whannell and Walsh, the newly-established writers room, which is already hard at work breaking down stories for its prospective freshman season, has added The Purge (TV) writer/producers Krystal Ziv Houghton and James Roland.
The television series will pick up several years after the events of the 2018 film of the same name with an evolved version of STEM and a new host and will imagine a new world in which the government repurposes STEM to help curb criminal activity.
The prolific Jason Blum of Blumhouse and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Gretal & Hansel; Honey Boy) of Automatik are also attached as executive producers.
The original Upgrade was one of 2018's most welcome surprises, garnering widespread critical acclaim and grossing over $17 million worldwide on an estimated $3 million production budget. It starred Logan Marshall-Green (Spider-Man: Homecoming; Devil), Betty Gabriel (Defending Jacob; Westworld), and Harrison Gilbertson (Look Away; Need for Speed) in the lead roles.