Here’s how XIII: The Series explained how the title character morphed from Stephen Dorff into Stuart Townsend. Like The Bourne Identity, the XIII franchise revolves around an amnesic assassin being hunted by his former agency. XIII began as a comic series back in the 1980s, with the title character waking up on a beach with no memory of who he is, with only an XIII tattoo offering any clues to his identity. The story revolves around XIII discovering his part in an elaborate conspiracy while dodging assassins.

Probably the most famous iteration of the franchise is the XIII video game from 2003. This Ubisoft first-person shooter is famed for its unique, cell-shaded graphics that give it a graphic novel look. The main character was voiced by David Duchovny (The X-Files) but while the game offered a distinct look and had bags of style, the gameplay itself was a little clunky. The game ends on a huge cliffhanger too but low sales saw a planned sequel being cancelled.

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The property was revived once again with 2008’s XIII: The Conspiracy. This miniseries starred Stephen Dorff as the main character while Val Kilmer played The Mongoose, the assassin chasing him down. The show followed the basic premise of the comic and video game and was compared to the likes of 24 and the Bourne series in reviews. XIII: The Conspiracy proved to be enough of a success that it led to a TV show, but minus its original leading man.

Instead, Stuart Townsend (Queen Of The Damned) took over for XIII: The Series. The show picks up two years after the events of the miniseries, which finds XIII – who’s still suffering from amnesia – has been placed in a rendition camp. To cover up the messy events of XIII: The Conspiracy, Colonel Amos (a returning Greg Bryk) had XIII locked away, which included giving him a facelift. When asked about his new face, XIII responds simply with “The other one had become a liability.” The show doesn’t explain how the character of Lauren Jones changed from actress Lucinda Davis to Aisha Tyler (Archer), however.

Stuart Townsend did a fine job in the title role, so Stephen Dorff isn’t really missed in XIII: The Series. The show ultimately ran for two seasons, with Pulp Fiction co-writer Roger Avary taking over as showrunner for season 2. Despite the final series giving it a revamp, it never really broke out and the show was cancelled. There don’t seem to be any plans to reboot the franchise as a movie or show, though the 2003 game has been reappraised as a cult gem in recent years.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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