‘Prison Break’ Season 5 Premiere Date In 2016 Conflicts With Release Of ‘Legends Of Tomorrow,’ Says Dominic Purcell

The Prison Break Season 5 premiere date has fans going crazy to see what actually happened to Michael Scofield, but unfortunately fans may have to be prepared to be wait a teensy bit longer for the Prison Break revival. The problem is that actors Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell are both committed to appearing in 16 episodes of Warner Bros’ Legends Of Tomorrow, while the Prison Break sequel is being produced by 20th Century Fox. The two companies are currently figuring out how to share the actors so the 10 planned episodes of Prison Break Season 5 can be filmed, but so far there does not seem to be a set official release date.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, it turns out Wentworth Miller came out of the closet as gay only because he was so angry over Russia’s anti-gay laws. Prior to this revelation, Miller actually hid this part of himself because he feared that making an announcement could harm his acting career since it was focused on playing macho rules in Prison Break, only to become the sinister Captain Cold in The Flash and Legends Of Tomorrow.

In the past, 20th Century Fox officially confirmed that the Prison Break Season 5 release date is coming some time in 2016, but so far, the details about the exact release date are limited. Over the weekend, actor Dominic Purcell revealed to TVLine that 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros are still working on sharing their toys. The main issue is that the two leading men for both major TV series have a little “time” problem with the Legends Of Tomorrow TV series, so the two companies have to work out a deal for when the Prison Break sequel can be filmed.

When Purcell made this revelation during the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, he confirmed that both companies are currently “negotiating the complexities” of a potential deal. He could not say whether or not the Prison Break Season 5 premiere date may be adjusted, or when it was originally planned for, but it does seem like the project may be slightly delayed even if it is “moving forward” for a 2016 release date.

“There are a lot of moving parts to that conversation,” Miller explained, “But we are hopeful that we’ll be able to shoot something this spring. Prison Break is taking its cue from Legends, which is the priority. So we’re aiming for spring.”

In the past, the Prison Break rumors suggested that the release date could potentially be set for March of 2016, but this information was not official and was never confirmed. Now that Dominic Purcell has given the public more details of internal negotiations, it sounds like March may be a bit optimistic.

Officially, March 20, 2016 is the start of spring, although it’s possible Purcell was not being that specific with his generalization of the timing. Regardless, even if they do start filming by the end of the March, the delay between when a TV show starts filming and when it is aired can often be more than a month. Based upon this premise, it seems safe to bet that the Prison Break Season 5 release date may be set somewhere between late April to early June at the earliest, although only Fox knows for certain.

Otherwise, we only know what Fox executives have publicly spoken about several months ago. Only 10 episodes have been commissioned by Fox so far, and we don’t know if it will have a title change, similar to Heroes: Reborn. Fox Co-Chairman and CEO Dana Walden did confirm that it will be a Prison Break sequel.

“I would describe it as a bit of a sequel. It picks up the characters several years after we left them in the last season of the show. The brothers will be back,” Walden said. “Some of the iconic characters from that show will be back. I don’t think [exec producer] Paul [Scheuring] knows exactly where he’s going over the 10-episode arc, but it definitely will address some questions that were set up at the end of the series for a new audience.”

Of course, that explanation sets up even more questions since everyone saw the main character Michael Scofield die during the straight-to-DVD release, Prison Break: The Final Break. So how does the character of Wentworth Miller live? A previous article discussed this question in detail, but the answer may simply be origami.

[Image via 20th Century Fox]