The Purge 6 gets exciting update from creator James DeMonaco

The Purge creator James DeMonaco has finished the script for the sixth film.

Four years after the latest entry in the horror franchise The Forever Purge hit screens, DeMonaco has revealed he has completed a new draft of the sixth movie’s screenplay and has given it to Blumhouse head Jason Blum.

He told Bloody Disgusting: “I just finished a script. My producer, Sébastien Lemercier, has read multiple drafts, given me notes. We just handed it to Jason.”

DeMonaco added he was “really happy” with the script, and was hoping to start filming the sixth Purge movie either at the end of this year or in 2026.

He said: “I’m really happy with it. I hope they like it. I think it’s cool and fun. We’re hoping next year would be great to shoot, maybe the end of this year if timing works out.

“But now it’s with the powers that be, so we’ll see what happens.”

While he didn’t confirm it was Frank Grillo’s Sgt. Leo Barnes - who appeared in 2014’s The Purge: Anarchy and The Purge: Election Year in 2016 - DeMonaco teased a fan-favourite character would be returning for the next film.

He said: “People’s favorite character might be coming back, I can say without naming who that is; a couple of people who could be.

“But someone’s coming back who I love and I think the audience loves.”

DeMonaco - who has written all five previous Purge flicks as well USA’s The Purge TV series - added “real warrior women” would take centre stage in the next film.

He said: “Then we create some real great female heroes in this one. There’s some really amazing women. We’ve had some great women in the past, but real warrior women come forth here in a way that we haven’t really explored on Purge night.

“It’s been really fun to write. And I’m writing with my wife, so I’m getting a nice female perspective, and that’s been really fun.”

The Purge is set in a near-future America where all crime is legal for 12 hours every year.

The original 2013 flick starred Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Adelaide Kane and Rhys Wakefield.

In June 2023, DeMonaco said he had finished the first script for the sixth Purge movie.

He told Variety: “It’s not completely different than previous movies, but it’s a new America that we’re entering into.

“In The Forever Purge, America kind of collapsed, and it’s really kind of mapped itself according to different ideologies.

“The states are based on sexuality, religion and ideology. So we’ve broken apart and the state of discord is at its worst. We enter The Purge in that world.”

Reflecting on the series as a whole, DeMonaco explained it was his “dark indictment of American gun culture” that had inspired The Purge franchise.

He said: “I had this little, strange, dark indictment of American gun culture. I hate guns.

“To me, the scariest thing in the world would be a night when everyone was armed and it was legal to use these firearms. To me, there was nothing scarier than that notion.”