Even the most die hard fans of John McClane will have to admit that Die Hard is far from the franchise it used to be. But Bruce Willis won't let it die, and not long after 2013's terrible A Good Day to Die Hard, which earned $300M worldwide, he was talking up Die Hard 6. While early rumors suggested Samuel L. Jackson could return to the series for a story possibly taking McClane to Japan (because blowing up Russia wasn't enough), the next film could go some place completely different: into the past.
According to Deadline, Willis, producer Lorenzo DiBonaventura, and director Len Wiseman are planning to make Die Hard 6 a prequel, exploring one of McClane's early adventures. Willis would return for the present day sections bookending the feature, while the rest is set in 1979 while McClane was an NYPD officer and shows how he became a "die hard kind of guy". Apparently, they forgot that the franchise's point was always that McClane was just a normal guy, not a natural action hero.
They're referring to it as Die Hard Year One which is also the name of a Boom! Studios comic book series about McClane's early years on the force, so it may be a loose adaptation of that story. It was published in 2009 and had McClane facing terrorists during the 1976 bicentennial.
While this obviously sounds like an awful idea on the surface, the simple fact is that Die Hard isn't going anywhere. This could be a way to revitalize the franchise while giving the aging Willis something a break. Maybe he'll only jump from one exploding helicopter this time rather than four or five.
