‘Manifest’: 4 Stars Not Guaranteed to Return for Season 4

Manifest is returning for a fourth season thanks to Netflix, but not all members of the cast are guaranteed to return. Series stars Josh Dallas, Melissa Roxburgh, and J.R. Ramirez have all signed new contracts with series producer Warner Bros. Television, but four other members of the ensemble cast are still in talks with the studio. Netflix and Manifest creator Jeff Rake announced a Season 4 pick-up on Saturday. The season will feature 20 episodes split over multiple parts, with the last episode serving as a series finale.

Parveen Kaur, who plays Saanvi Bahl, is still finalizing a deal to return, reports Deadline. The other actors still in talks are Luna Blaise, who plays Olive Stone; Matt Long, who stars as Zeke Landon; and Jack Messina, who plays Cal Stone. It might be difficult for Long to return, as he signed on as a series regular for NBC‘s drama pilot Getaway.

Warner Bros. TV did not comment on the specifics of the actors’ contracts, but their original deals all expired in June after Netflix originally passed on reviving Manifest. Although the first two seasons of Manifest shot up Netflix’s TV charts when they were released on the platform in June, the streamer initially decided against keeping the show going after NBC canceled it. But once Season 3 surfaced on Netflix earlier this month, the streamer restarted talks with Warner Bros., which then went ahead and began talks with the cast, Deadline reported on Aug. 18.

“What started years ago as a flight of fancy deep in my imagination has evolved into the jet engine journey of a lifetime,” Rake said in a statement Saturday morning. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have envisioned the worldwide outpouring of love and support for this story, its characters, and the team who work so hard to bring it all to life. That we will be able to reward the fans with the ending they deserve moves me to no end. On behalf of the cast, the crew, the writers, directors, and producers, thank you to Netflix, to Warner Bros., and of course to the fans. You did this.”

Manifest, which debuted on NBC in September 2018, begins with Montego Flight 828 from Jamaica arriving in New York City, more than five years after it was supposed to. The only problem is that it doesn’t feel like five years for any of the passengers. When they return, the passengers have to put their lives back together, even as they begin to hear voices and visions of future events. Rake originally envisioned the show running six seasons, but he told Entertainment Weekly he moved away from that idea and hoped at the very least he could make a two-hour movie to wrap up the story and solve the Season 3 cliffhanger.

“I am personally sketching out how to consolidate the back half of the series into a much more streamlined, cut-to-the-chase two-hour finale that would distill all of the hanging chads of the series,” Rake told EW in June. “That’s where my head is at. There is a huge appetite for people wanting to know what’s that end of the story, what happened to the passengers, what ultimately happened to that airplane.” Now thanks to Netflix, he will get at least get 20 hours to wrap everything up.