As you probably assumed already, you won’t be getting a follow-up to HBO‘s excellent and underrated Baltimore-set crime series “The Wire,” though there had been some confusion last year. Last Spring, the French outlet Society interviewed “The Wire” creator David Simon, and he revealed he was working on another Baltimore series, leading people to assume, hope, and “deduce,” that there was a potential sequel series in the works (though the Baltimore Sun shot down those theories quickly).
So the confusion was somewhat understandable, and things have finally been cleared-up. The new show is not a sequel to “The Wire,” as Deadline reports that David Simon and longtime collaborator and co-writer George Pelecanos will be reuniting on an adaptation of the book “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption” penned by investigative journalist Justin Fenton. The pair, who recently co-created and worked together on “The Deuce,” will write and executive produce the limited series, titled “We Own This City.”
The new HBO limited series will be focusing on real-life police corruption in Baltimore surrounding the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a young black man who died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. The corruption from Baltimore PD’s Gun Trace Task Force was rampant, with officers stealing cash, evidence, and even planting evidence. A mysterious death of a fellow officer (shot in the head) that was set to testify, only added more extreme drama into the mix. It should certainly be in the pair’s wheelhouse as “The Wire” felt extremely authentic to the world of crime and policing.
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The Fenton novel should give Simon and Pelecanos plenty of material for the limited series as real-life can be just as dramatic if not more as a fictional story. It’s currently unknown when filming is expected to begin or when HBO hopes it will begin to air.