'Prison Break' season 5 spoilers: EP explains why Michael got locked up in the Middle East
After being declared dead in "Prison Break" season 4, the Fox drama's anticipated reboot will see Michael (Wentworth Miller) behind bars in Yemen.
Fox's anticipated revival of "Prison Break" debuts in a few months, but fans are still wondering how Michael (Wentworth Miller) ended up in prison in the Middle East. Although the series has yet to reveal that important part of the story, executive Producer Paul Scheuring recently explained why the show is heading to the Middle East instead of any other country in the world.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Scheuring teased that the show's new setting was inspired by "Odyssey," an ancient Greek poem attributed to Homer. "I wanted Michael to show up in the most unexpected and distant and foreboding place," Scheuring told the publication's Spoiler Room segment, adding, "The deepest, darkest part of the Middle Eastern struggle might be that. It raises the question: How the hell of all places did he end up there?"
The EP went on to explain that one of the major components of season 5 is drawn from Odysseus' journey through hell. He went across half the globe just to get home, and Scheuring stresses that he wants to see Michael go through the same path.
"It's not just a matter of getting out of prison or getting out of a country, but it was traversing half the globe to get back to his wife and the son he hasn't seen before, to really play that 'Odyssey' feel as opposed to just getting out of a prison in the United States and getting back to them," he added.
Over the course of the program's four seasons, viewers have seen cast members get locked up in mainly three prisons. Season 1 centered on the Fox River State Penitentiary in Illinois, while seasons 2 and 3 were set in the PenitenciarÃa Federal de Sona in Panama. The series wrapped up in 2009 with Michael's ex-wife, Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies), fleeing from Miami-Dade County Penitentiary, and when the show comes back, Michael is serving time in Yemen.
The fifth season of "Prison Break" premieres spring 2017 on Fox.
