Should The Prisoner be remade into a movie?

No, but that probably won’t stop Hollywood from trying.

It shouldn’t be remade for two reasons:

First, The Prisoner was “lightning in a bottle” and a near singular vision of Patrick McGoohan (while George Markstein was actively involved in creating the series, it was leveraging McGoohan’s concept and ideas). Whenever a series is driven by such a singular vision, it is hard to replicate it if the original creator is not involved. Imagine if Twin Peaks were coming back and neither David Lynch or Mark Frost were involved… As a fan, would you want to watch that? Not me (and I am a fan of both Peaks and The Prisoner).

The lightning can’t strike twice, because dear Mr. McGoohan is no longer with us.

Additionally, because this is not a show like Star Trek or Doctor Who that can shift creators and evolve over time, The Prisoner was a period piece, and very much reflected the late-60s rebellion against conformity which (unfortunately) is no longer as relevant now. Because of this, and while many of the themes still resonate today, it would be hard pressed to work as well in “today’s” world (witness the AMC miniseries remake of years back).

The time period as “the bottle” that Mcgoohan’s lighting struck in, and that bottle is forever in the past.

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