Frank Grillo may be done with the Purge franchise

Last Updated on July 21, 2021

I enjoyed THE PURGE, but THE PURGE: ANARCHY took the franchise to a whole new level, and a lot of what made the sequel such an entertaining experience was the presence of Frank Grillo in the cast as tormented ass-kicker Sergeant – a character I basically saw as being Marvel's The Punisher, dropped into the PURGE world.

With Sergeant's story being wrapped up at the end of ANARCHY, I figured his PURGE days were over, but I certainly wasn't complaining when it was revealed that Grillo would be reprising the role in THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR.

With PURGE creator James DeMonaco saying that he thinks the way forward for the franchise post-ELECTION YEAR might be a prequel film and a television series that would dig deeper into the lives of people who get caught up in The Purge, it again appeared that Grillo's character might be finished dealing with Purgers… unless DeMonaco found a way to work him into the TV show. But not only does Sergeant Leo Barnes' story seem to be over, Grillo himself also thinks it's time for him to walk away from THE PURGE.

During a recent interview with Collider, Grillo said:

After Anarchy, Universal called me and said, ‘You’ve got a franchise. We’re gonna continue with this, if you wanna do this.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, this is great!’ And so, when Election Year was even more successful, they were like, ‘Let’s keep doing this!’ I was like, ‘Maybe. I think I might be done, but you should keep doing it!’ But, I love it! … If DeMonaco was still involved and they came up with a great idea, then I think I would do [another Purge movie]. Otherwise, I think I’m done. … I’m appreciative of The Purge. It’s become a part of the lexicon and the zeitgeist knows what it is, so that’s been fun. But, it’s time to move on. Don’t stay at the party too long, or you get knocked through the ropes."

I can definitely see where Grillo's coming from there, and I don't really think his character should be brought back for any more PURGE stories. The world is bigger than his character, and he doesn't need to keep getting caught up in the mayhem. His role in ELECTION YEAR already wasn't quite as impactful as it was in ANARCHY, so I say let's just appreciate what he brought to the table in those two movies and now keeping moving forward.