THE OMEN is the latest popular horror property to be getting the television treatment, with a follow-up series called DAMIEN set to start airing on A&E in 2016, just in time for the fortieth anniversary of the Richard Donner classic.
Picking up twenty-five years after the events of THE OMEN, DAMIEN follows
…the adult life of Damien Thorn, the mysterious child from the 1976 film who has grown up, seemingly unaware of the satanic forces around him. Haunted by his past, Damien must now come to terms with his true destiny — that he is the Antichrist, the most feared man throughout the ages.
Bradley James stars in the title role.
To get viewers ready for the arrival of the Antichrist on their TV screens, A&E has now released a handful of images featuring James and co-star Barbara Hershey, along with a trailer that can be viewed below.
The first season of DAMIEN will run ten episodes, and the series' executive producer and showrunner is Glen Mazzara, known to fans of TV horror as the showrunner of THE WALKING DEAD during its second and third seasons. That's a stretch which I felt was THE WALKING DEAD's most troubled, although those seasons had their fair share of greatness as well.
DAMIEN will be a very different show than THE WALKING DEAD, of course, with Mazzara describing it as a "conspiracy thriller". I think the story of THE OMEN and the character of Damien do have strong potential to carry an on-going show, so I'm interested in seeing how this plays out.