Prison Break Reboot: Everything to Know About Hulu's New TV Series

While the original Prison Break series was never particularly well liked by critics, Fox's hugely entertaining drama series was popular enough with viewers that it just couldn't let it go. Even after the series was canceled, it came back for more twice — first with a direct-to-video movie that attempted to give the series a real ending not long after Season 4 aired, and a not-particularly-well-liked revival season in 2017. That would probably have been the end of things, had the series not blown up on Netflix last year.

Hulu initially began developing a new Prison Break series in 2023 before the original show's viral explosion, and that success helped spark an order for a new pilot episode in December 2024. Plans for the new series are starting to become a bit clearer at this point, and we know some of the key details, such as who's breaking out of prison this time, the broad strokes of what the story is about, and the new, very different prison that the cast will have to escape from. So read on to see everything we know about the new version of Prison Break.

Prison Break reboot latest news

We've got some great news for those of you who've been dying to hear if this new Prison Break is really happening: it is! Hulu has ordered the reboot to series, meaning we'll get at least one season of the new-look Prison Break. 

Prison Break reboot expected premiere date

Now that the rebooted Prison Break has been ordered to series, things are starting to get very real for the upcoming show. While no dates have yet been mentioned in any official announcements or leaks, and we don't know if the rest of the season has been written yet, it's a safe guess at this point that New Prison Break will premiere at some point in 2026 now that the ball is really rolling on this one. 

Prison Break reboot storyline

The original show opened with Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) robbing a bank and getting sent to prison for it — but it's all part of his plan to help save his half-brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), who's locked up in the same prison but on death row for a murder he was framed for by a secret organization known only as The Company. While we don't have any concrete details about the reboot's plot, a scoop from TVLine includes some key info about some of the characters that may shed some light on what's coming.

There are six characters teased in the TVLine scoop, as well as a setting. The Prison Break reboot will take place in a mixed-gender prison, which should make for a big shift after the original show only had four women, total, included among its main cast members across its four seasons. Indeed, three of the characters mentioned in TVLine's scoop are women, including a former U.S. Army Ranger who is now a corrections officer, which is the role that Emily Browning will play, and a pregnant inmate whose significant other is also imprisoned there. On the male side of it, we've got an inmate who didn't do the crime that he's in prison for (Drake Rodger), another inmate who's been tasked with killing the innocent guy, and a candidate for the U.S. senate (Lukas Gage) who's pals with the former Army Ranger. 

Prison Break reboot cast

The cast for the new series is coming along, with the core cast and a number of notable guest stars already lined up. The main cast includes Emily Browning as a prison guard who's seemingly going to try to bust somebody out, Lukas Gage as a young politician, and Drake Rodger, Clayton Cardenas, JR Bourne, Georgie Flores, and Myles Bullock as inmates. Assuming Flores is playing the pregnant inmate mentioned in the previous section, that should be a role to watch. 

A number of key guest roles on the new Prison Break pilot were filled with veteran TV folks, per Variety. We've got Margo Martindale taking on the role of the prison warden, which is perfect, alongside Donal Logue, Lili Taylor, and Ray McKinnon. McKinnon will play a private detective investigating an old murder — presumably the one that Drake Rodgers' character was wrongly convicted for. Logue will play a father mourning the loss of his family, and Taylor will play a mom seeking the truth. While none of these folks is confirmed for the series, it's likely that Hulu will want to hold onto this very solid roster of recognizable and well liked character actors. 

Prison Break reboot cast:

• Emily Browning as Cassidy Collins, an ex-soldier turned corrections officer
• Lukas Gage as Jackson, a politician from a well-to-do background in his first congressional campaign
• Drake Rodger as Tommy, an inmate at one of the deadliest prisons in America, incarcerated 10 years ago
• Clayton Cardenas as Michael/"Ghost"
• JR Bourne as Junior
• Georgie Flores as Andrea
• Myles Bullock as Darius/"Red"
• Lili Taylor as Carole Mullen
• Margo Martindale as Warden Jessica Strand
• Donal Logue as Holt Keane
• Ray McKinnon as private detective Joe Dahl

Is anybody coming back from the original Prison Break series?

It doesn't appear as though any of the original cast members will be returning for the new version of Prison Break, but because the reboot will still take place in the Prison Break universe, it leaves the door open for folks to potentially return later on. But that might not be as simple as you'd think. Wentworth Miller, who is gay, revealed publicly years ago that he's completely done playing straight characters, which Miller has specifically said means he's done with the Michael Scofield character. And it would be surprising if Dominic Purcell, who played Michael's brother, and Sarah Wayne Callies, who played his wife, showed up without Miller.

For now, that means we should expect the new series to do its own thing for the most part, while still allowing it to connect more directly with the original series should circumstances allow them to bring some of the old characters back. Because let's be honest, a reboot can't resist at least a little fan pandering.

Who's in charge of this Prison Break reboot?

Mayans MC co-creator and showrunner Elgin James is also the boss on the Prison Break reboot, and that, combined with the move from network to a streaming home, likely means that the new version of the show will have a somewhat different vibe than the original did when it aired on network TV 20 years ago. Though Prison Break was fairly rough for a network series, as it featured a white supremacist rapist as one of its main characters from beginning to end, the reboot will be able to get away with a lot more TV-MA stuff, like cursing, violence, and sex, on Hulu.

Where to watch Prison Break

While Prison Break had a massive resurgence in popularity in 2024 on Netflix, the series is once again available to stream on Hulu.