Talk about upshot: The last female star on Prison Break got beheaded; the next might get her own series.

Fox is reportedly plotting a Prison Break spinoff that would take place at a women's penitentiary and follow a new character who's expected to make her debut later this season on the serialized thriller.

A source close to Prison Break tells E! Online that producers have been trying to cast the role for several weeks but, with shooting on her episodes rapidly approaching, an actress still hasn't been found.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the network has ordered a pilot for the spinoff, tentatively titled Prison Break: Cherry Hill, revolving around a woman named Molly. Described as an upper-middle-class wife, Molly will become an ally of Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) as he attempts to escape from Panama's deadly Sona prison.

She is an avowed enemy of the Company, the same shadowy government organization that has been out to get Michael and his brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), since Prison Break debuted.

"There is an ironic similarity between Molly and Michael -- they're both emotionally banged up, both have lost loved ones, and both want the people responsible to pay -- so they empathize with each other," executive producer Matt Olmstead explains in the Reporter.

Cherry Hill would then pick up with Molly serving her own life sentence. She plans her own breakout after getting word some of her loved ones might still be alive.

"In a moment's time, she is transformed from an unapologetic murderer to a motivated woman who would do anything to get out of prison and be with them," adds Olmstead, who's writing the script with coexecutive producer Zack Estrin. The spinoff is the brainchild of Olmstead, Estrin and fellow Prison Break executive producer Dawn Parouse.

The challenge for producers is how to seamlessly integrate Molly's storyline into Prison Break's increasingly intricate plot while laying the foundation for a new, wholly separate prime-time vehicle.

This season on Prison Break, the Company kidnaps Lincoln's son, L.J., and Michael's love interest, Sara Tancredi, to coerce the men into breaking out another inmate from the maximum-security Latin American penal complex.

To speed up the work, a Company operative known only as Susan B. Anthony had Tancredi killed and her head delivered in a box—a gruesome and abrupt ending to a romantic plot that had dominated Prison Break for much of the first two seasons.

While producers are attempting the offing as a key plot point—i.e, giving the already intense Michael more motivation—the death was forced by offscreen machinations. Sarah Wayne Callies, the actress who played Sara, had been embroiled in a contract dispute.

The beheading has already sparked a backlash among show devotees, who have lambasted Sara's sudden departure on message boards.

The producers also need to worry about the legs of Prison Break. The serialized plot requires fan dedication, and the show, originally intended as a limited series, often seems to be recycling plots or, worse, treading water. Ratings in turn have suffered, with the show tumbling from an average 9.3 million viewers in its inaugural 2005-06 season to 7.9 million viewers for this third season, per Nielsen Media Research stats.

(Agencies via China Daily October 25, 2007)