If his body wasn’t liquefied on impact after falling out of Nakatomi Plaza, Hans Gruber is probably rolling in his grave. According to a report from Deadline, Live Free or Die Hard director/Paul F. Tompkins podcast character Len Wiseman is hammering out a deal with Fox to develop a sixth entry in the Die Hard series with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers franchise). As if 2013’s A Good Day to Die Hard, co-starring default Skyrim character model Jai Courtney, wasn’t bad enough, this new film is rumored to be a prequel of sorts.

A “prequel”, of sorts…

What does that mean? It sounds insane, right? I’m glad we’re on the same page. The report claims that the film, which is still in very early stages, will still leave room for Willis to reprise his role as tough-as-nails NYPD cop John McClane. No, they aren’t going to digitally de-age him like uncanny valley Michael Douglas in Ant-Man. Rather, Willis will bookend the film in present day while the meat of the storyline focuses on McClane as a cop 1979 New York City, “and showing how he became a die hard kind of guy.”

Right. This is how I imagine the pitch meeting ended:

For those of you super into the inside baseball side of things, di Bonaventura is still primarily working with Paramount. He is involved here because Fox wanted to convert one of his projects into a Die Hard film, like they did with Die Hard with a Vengeance, which was originally a spec script titled Simon Says. Wiseman apparently came up with a new angle that was amenable to both di Bonaventura and Fox, so they are moving forward together amicably.

While this whole endeavor sounds insane to me, it makes sense from a financial perspective, as the film series is still a moneymaker at the box office. Wiseman reinvigorated the series with 2007’s Live Free or Die Hard, which garnered $383 million worldwide, and the John Moore-directed A Good Day to Die Hard netted $300 million as well. But sweet buttery Moses, I am not excited by the prospect of this film. Here’s hoping that my deep-seated cynicism is misguided and this is the Die Hard movie I’ve been waiting for since Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Or, at the very least, maybe they’ll finally reconsider and read my spec script for Hans Gruber: The College Years.

What do you think? Are you excited by the prospect of a prequel? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Image: Fox

HT: Deadline

Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. You can follow him on Twitter (@Osteoferocious).