Die Hard: Year One

Cancelled film adaptation

In September 2017, Len Wiseman announced he was looking for a younger actor to play John McClane in a prequel titled John McClane, based on the Die Hard: Year One comic. The following March, 20th Century Fox brought in Chad and Carey W. Hayes to revise the script after Bruce Willis rejected the earlier version and its lead actor. That July, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura turned in a new treatment called McClane, which confirmed the story would mix scenes of McClane and Holly in the 1970s with their present-day selves.

The next month, Wiseman said pre-production would begin fairly soon, with no set date, once the script was finished. Tobey Maguire joined the production team late that summer. By December, di Bonaventura submitted another draft, this time without Willis’s input. Production designer Carol Uraneck, hired that September, left the project by year’s end.

In February 2019, the writing team made revisions, hinting the project was on the back burner since studio executives hadn’t even read the script. Mary Elizabeth Winstead said she was interested in returning as Lucy Gennero-McClane but later doubted the film would happen due to scheduling conflicts. After Disney acquired Fox and underwent a management shake-up that included firing theatrical distribution executive Chris Aronson, Die Hard was removed from Fox’s schedule through at least 2021.

The production was canceled outright in August 2019 after Disney reconsidered. Following the reorganization, Disney reportedly planned to reboot development of McClane as a streaming television series. In March 2022, Bruce Willis retired from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, ending any form of the prequel or sequel McClane involving him.