IRVINE Welsh is plotting a TV prequel to Trainspotting charting the teenage years of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie.

The Scots author, 58, is in talks to recast the flawed four as pimply adolescents for a series based on his hit 2012 novel Skagboys.

2 Welsh is planning prequel showing the characters' teen years

And he revealed he is bouncing ideas for the project off the cult film’s producer Andrew MacDonald, which would see unknown actors take on the iconic roles.

He said: “Myself and Andrew have been talking about doing it as a TV series and recasting it with younger actors and bringing it all up.

“The dust is kind of still settling. Trainspotting 2 has just opened in the States, so we’re all waiting to see what’s going to happen and then we’ll get together in the summer and see what we want to do.”

2 Welsh is in talks over a TV prequel to cult movie

The characters were made famous in the 1996 movie by Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle.

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Skagboys, released in 2012, plots Renton and Sick Boy’s descent into heroin addiction in Leith, Edinburgh, in the early 1980s and introduces youthful versions of hapless Spud and psycho Begbie.

Trainspotting sequel T2 — released in January to rave reviews — catches up with the characters 20 years after Renton double-crossed them over a drug deal.

And Welsh’s 2016 novel The Blade Artist continues the story by following Begbie when he moves to California — only to be dragged back to his old life in Edinburgh after his son dies.

Welsh is also working on a TV drama about the acid house scene of the 1980s and a host of other projects.

He said: “I’ve got three films, three TV shows and three novels in the works and we’ve got a stage play at the Edinburgh Festival coming up.”

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