Wayward Pines season 3 renewal still possible, despite long hiatus
Today at the TCA Summer Press Tour, network president David Madden spoke at length (per TVLine) about the current status of the product, with M. Night Shyamalan in the process of having discussions with the network about what the future holds:
“We don’t know yet … M. Night has talked to both [Fox CEO] Dana [Walden] and me recently about the possibilities of what a third season could be. So we’re going to be sitting down with him probably in the next week or two, talking about his thoughts and potential story ideas, casting ideas. So we haven’t made any kind of decision yet, but we are talking about it.”
At the moment, we’re slightly pessimistic about the show’s future for one reason: Casual viewers in 2017 have a tendency to forget things very quickly. This is a show that will be off the air by two years in the event that it returns next summer, and that’s a tough situation for it. It would have to convince viewers of a somewhat-polarizing second season to stay put, plus also recruit some people who aren’t all that familiar with the property already.
If the show does get a third season, we would expect it to be the end of the road for the show. Why? Let’s just say that sometimes it’s better to end on a high note rather than potentially stall things and deal with another protracted decision like this. It’s also just difficult to keep a show on the air in the summer for a rather long time — that’s one of the reasons why the network’s summer schedule this year was basically barren when it comes to scripted programming. They didn’t put a whole lot of stuff on the air, and that does bum us out. Wayward Pines is a super-cool concept, and we like that Fox gave it a chance. Unfortunately, the lack of notable summer programming on the network around it is probably one of the reasons for its struggles in season 2. It was still one of the most-popular network scripted properties last year, but suffered a pretty sharp drop in the live+same-day numbers.
So when could a renewal / cancellation decision be made?
If we were to guess, we would say that it could be coming in the late fall or early winter. If the show is going to premiere by the summer of 2018, Fox needs to give the team a chance to come up with a new story and filming will need to get going.
What do you think: Do you want to see a Wayward Pines season 3 renewal? Share in the comments below!
Meanwhile, head over to the link here if you want to get some additional news on the show and what could be coming in the future. (Photo: Fox.)