It's time for another 'Prison Break,' as Fox series returns for a new run

PASADENA, Calif. — How many times can one person break out of prison?

Apparently, at least once more.

After a five-year run on Fox that ended with the death of Wentworth Miller's Michael Scofield, Prison Break is coming back — and so is Michael.  When the show returns to Fox April 4 for a nine-episode run, seven years has passed and Michael is back in prison. And not just any prison, one in the Middle East.

And we owe it all to The Flash, which reunited Miller with his Prison Break brother Dominic Purcell as Captain Cold and Heat Wave.  "That is where Dom and I had our reunion," Miller told television critics Wednesday. "We hadn't seen each other for five years. Suddenly we're on set, discussing old times, and out of that experience came the idea of revisiting Prison Break."

During a lunch with the show's creator, Paul Scheuring, and they talked about what the show might look like — and whether anyone would want to see it. And as they left the restaurant, Scheuring says, two men stopped their car in the middle of the road, ran over to them, and asked for a picture with "the guy from Prison Break. That's the kind of hunger that's out there for the show."

Getting much of the original cast, including Robert Knepper, Rockmond Dunbar and Sarah Wayne Callies, back together wasn't easy, Scheuring says. But he was thrilled to do so, and to bring the series back to what he says is its essence.

"You have to have a prison you want to get out of, obviously, but then you have to have an emotional end game at the end of that escape that the audience can embrace."

What was coming back like for the stars? "It was easy," says Purcell.

"Anything else?," says Miller.

"No, that's it."