The Outsider may very well return for a second season, but it won’t air on HBO.
The pay cabler has passed on Season 2 of the Stephen King adaptation, effectively cancelling the Emmy-nominated drama after one season. The series will now be shopped by production company MRC, which is hoping to sell Season 2 to another cable network or streaming service.
“We enjoyed our collaboration with [executive producers] Richard [Price], Jason [Bateman], Andrew [Bernstein] and the MRC team, and we wish them well in continuing the world created by the brilliant Stephen King,” HBO said in a statement to Deadline.
Added MRC Television President Elise Henderson, “We thank HBO for a great partnership in the first season, and for helping to bring in a massive audience who fell in love with The Outsider. We are looking forward to finding a new home for this remarkable series.”
While it was initially perceived as a limited series, The Outsider competed as a regular drama series at the 2020 Emmys, where it scored nominations for guest actor (Bateman) and directing (also Bateman). In the Season 1 finale, Ben Mendelsohn’s Ralph appeared to kill the supernatural entity that was terrorizing the town, but a post-credits scene hinted that Cynthia Erivo’s Holly may have been infected by the entity before its eventual demise.
According to Deadline, a hypothetical second season would center on Holly and stray from the source material. Price has already penned the first script, as well as a series Bible for moving forward, with King’s blessing.
Word that The Outsider won’t continue at HBO comes one week after Hulu announced it cancelled the King anthology series Castle Rock after two seasons.
Are your fingers crossed for a second season of The Outsider? Or were you satisfied with its limited, 10-episode run?
