The Pretender: New Plans for Reviving the Adventures

When original Pretender adventures disappeared from the airwaves in 2001, fans were still left with a lot of questions. Fortunately, the show’s creators haven’t forgotten about them and are working on a way to bring the series back, albeit in a different form.

The Pretender debuted on September 19, 1996 and aired for four seasons on NBC. In the series, Michael T. Weiss plays the lead character, a beyond-genius “Pretender” named Jarod. As a young boy, Jarod was abducted from his parents and trained by The Centre to be able to flawlessly integrate himself into any profession or lifestyle. As an adult, Jarod discovers that the organization is using him for no good and he escapes. Jarod travels the country trying to help those in need while managing to stay a step ahead of his captors. When the series ended on May 13, 2000 after four seasons, it looked like Jarod, Miss Parker (Andrea Parker), and Ethan (guest Tyler Christopher) didn’t survive a huge train explosion.

Fortunately, the cliffhanger was later resolved. The Pretender was picked up for syndication and ran successfully on cable station TNT. That success paved the way for two television movies that aired in January and December 2001. When the second movie ended, there were still many questions left unanswered. Fans petitioned for more TV movies but they didn’t happen.

Pretender creators Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle have long said that the show was a labor of love and that they’re interested in continuing the Pretender story. A few months ago, the creators suggested that the show might be continued online.

In a recent interview with Sci Fi Wire, Mitchell and Van Sickle shared a few more details. “We created the show The Pretender, and we’re working on bringing that back in a whole new form, in a digital form and in a digital platform,” Mitchell shared. This would allow viewers to be able to tap into more information and be able to follow the progress of the new stories.

A new format doesn’t mean however that they’re forsaking the series’ star or the existing Pretender storylines. Van Sickle notes, “We had breakfast with Michael… he just finished up a play out here in New York. I guess kind of the best thing we can say is that we have a timetable of within, hopefully, the next five or six months that we can have something really unique and different out there.” Stay tuned!