How ‘The Wire’ Nearly Had Its Own Prequel Movie

For five long seasons, HBO’s “The Wire” gave audiences a gripping look at both sides of the Baltimore drug trade. Showcasing both angles of the story, the police enforcers and the street dealers, “The Wire” grew into one of the most respected crime television shows by interweaving narratives and portraying the real-world struggle of a city tormented by narcotics.

Despite its fan reception and critical acclaim, “The Wire” never became a full-length movie like other HBO counterparts, such as “Entourage,” “Deadwood,” and “Sex and the City.” Yet, in a recent interview with Empire, “The Wire” detective ‘Jimmy’ McNulty himself, Dominic West, explains there were prequel plans that were inevitably scrapped.

“We were talking about [making] a movie of ‘The Wire’ for a while,” West said. “[Series creator David Simon] said it would have to be a prequel, but we were all looking a little long in the tooth.”

Revealed by West in a 2017 interview with the Daily Beast, it was Wendell Pierce, who played detective William Moreland in the HBO series, who “was the driving force behind the movie idea.” While “The Wire” feature film might have been highly sought after by fans, Simon decided that the actors were simply too old to perform a workable sequel flick, so instead, he went with something completely different, yet still grounded in “The Wire” universe.

According to a 2013 Tweet from Pierce, Simon would have centered “The Wire” prequel movie around Samuel L. Jackson as the kingpin who would later be overrun by both Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) and ‘Stringer’ Bell (Idris Elba). Those plans likewise eventually fell through, however.

West continued to explain to Empire recently that Simon didn’t stop there. His crew on “The Wire” simply could not be replaced, so he attempted to design a Louis Armstrong feature about the singer’s younger years, which would be “a crime story set in New Orleans that was not a ‘Wire’ film, but would feature the entire ‘Wire’ cast.”

Though it never made it to the silver screen, “The Wire” remains a staple of the crime drama, a show that Simon himself coined a “Greek tragedy for the new millennium” and “a novel for television.” While it may be gone for good, it’s fan-beloved five seasons prove it’s as much a classic as “Miami Vice” and “Law & Order," despite never getting that feature film.