Blumhouse has been responsible for some of the biggest horror films of the past 15 years. There’s been no slowing down in this regard, which has led to a natural temptation to transform compelling ideas into enduring franchises. This has proven to be incredibly successful for franchises like Paranormal Activity, The Purge, and Insidious, while other titles like M3gan and Sinister have buckled under the pressure.
Leigh Whannell cut his teeth on Saw alongside James Wan before taking greater ownership of the Insidious franchise and becoming an accomplished director in his own right. Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man helped elevate Whannell’s filmmaking credibility, but this modern update to the Universal Monster classic wouldn’t have been possible without his previous work on Upgrade.
Upgrade is a stunning blend of sci-fi, horror, and action that involves an experimental chip that grants its user superhuman abilities and intuition, which turns them into the ultimate weapon. It tells a complete story, but it’s set in a rich world that’s primed for additional stories. The film wasn’t developed with franchise potential in mind, but it suddenly made a lot of sense to pursue a sequel. These plans eventually shifted into a TV series, which also meshed with Blumhouse’s evolving sensibilities. Blumhouse had found success with a Purge TV series – and now The Creep Tapes – and so an Upgrade series felt like the film’s natural evolution.
In 2025, Whannell confirmed that future Upgrade projects were no longer being pursued and that he’s comfortable viewing his film as a singular cult classic. Details on the project’s dissolution were never firmly outlined, and much of the series’ production was left in mystery. However, the circumstances behind Upgrade’s cancellation have now become a little clearer after speaking with producer Tim Walsh, who was acting as the series’ writer, showrunner, and executive producer.
“Leigh and I sold that to Peacock back in 2019,” recalls Walsh. “I think I started my writer’s room for Upgrade on the day the world shut down from the pandemic.” Walsh, who is currently executive producer on MGM+’s The Hillsider Strangler docu-series, outlines how shifting leadership and growing COVID-19 concerns were the biggest hurdles Upgrade faced. “We had the writer’s room. We wrote the scripts. But, as often happens in this business, somebody up top at Peacock got fired, and a new person came in, thought they knew everything, and dropped that project. It never got picked up later because it was a tumultuous time in the world.”
Whannell had previously teased how Upgrade’s series would look at an improved version of the STEM chip as well as a new host, rather than following Logan Marshall-Green’s Grey Trace from the film. Walsh adds further context to this setup and explains that the series’ would have been a considerably more psychological affair than the movie.
“The whole series was about criminals and the STEM chip being put into them to reform them. It was like A Clockwork Orange, you know, but with STEM being put in.”
It makes a lot of sense for an Upgrade series to dig even further into morality, especially with a cast of characters who begin at the despicable side of the spectrum. It’s a rewarding angle for storytelling and character development, albeit one that proved to be another obstacle in Upgrade’s development. “It was a series about four anti-heroes – four criminals – at a time when it was not popular to tell stories about criminals, cops, and all of that stuff,” explains Walsh. “So, my version died.”
It’s unfortunate that bad timing got in the way of what could have been a seriously exciting evolution of an underrated Blumhouse film. “I’m sure they have tried with other writers,” admits Walsh. “I don’t know where it’s landed or why it hasn’t landed, but man, I love Leigh Whannell.” Nevertheless, Walsh remains optimistic about the future and that they’ll get the chance to collaborate again. “He and I have remained friends, and it was a blast to work on that. It still hurts to this day that it didn’t go forward.”
Walsh laments the loss of Upgrade, and his unique angle feels like it would have been something special. That being said, it’s not hard to imagine bigger Blumhouse franchises like Paranormal Activity and even Saw working in more of an episodic anthology context. James Wan and Leigh Whannell have recently returned to steer Saw’s future for Blumhouse. Wan will be directing the next entry in the series, which will presumably be written by Wan and Whannell.
Saw’s cinematic future remains bright. However, Whannell and Walsh could channel the same creative energy that was present for the Upgrade series into a Saw show. Walsh’s background on gritty crime procedurals like Chicago P.D. and Law & Order: Organized Crime would be perfect for something like Saw that operates as their heightened extreme.
The additional details on why Upgrade failed to materialize are disappointing, if not illuminating. If nothing else, Blumhouse hopefully won’t fully retreat from television and continue to experiment with the medium.
The post “It Was Like ‘A Clockwork Orange,’ But With STEM” – Producer Tim Walsh Opens Up About Cancelled ‘Upgrade’ TV Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.