‘The OA’ Season 3: Brit Marling Stokes Hopes for Season 3

More than four years after Netflix sparked fan outrage with its cancellation of The OA, series creator Brit Marling is renewing hope that the show could one day return. Speaking with The Wrap about the Emma Corrin-led FX limited series A Murder at the End of the World, Marling revealed that mystery drama series is something she thinks about “all the time.”

“I guess it’s a question of whether the climate and circumstances in the world reach a place where it can bloom, but of course we think about that story all the time,” Marling shared. “It was its own world, and of course [we cherished] the fan response to the show. The artworks they’ve made, the protests that they’ve done … it’s been inspiring for us to continue as storytellers in general, knowing there’s an audience for an outsider perspective.”

Zal Batmanglij, who co-created and co-executive produced the series alongside Marling, added: “I’ll be sitting next to Brit, who is the OA so you’ll have people come out of the woodwork, and it’s all sorts of different people from different backgrounds. That’s really exciting because you’re like, ‘Oh, you can tell something original and it can hit people who don’t even speak the same language as you, who don’t have anything in common with you other than we’re humans on Earth at this time.’ That makes you want to tell more stories.”

Debuting in December 2016, The OA starred Marling as Prairie Johnson, a young woman who returns home with the ability to see after having gone missing seven years prior. Calling herself “The OA,” or “Original Angel,” she recruits five strangers for a secret mission. The series also starred Emory Cohen, Patrick Gibson, Jason Isaacs, Ian Alexander, Phyllis Smith, Brendan Meyer, Brandon Perea, Will Brill, Sharon Van Etten, Scott Wilson, Alice Krieg, and Paz Vega.

Although The OA was an under-the-radar series at Netflix, it quickly gained critical acclaim and was picked up for a second season, which premiered more than two years later in March 2019. However, just months later, Netflix canceled the show, sparking outrage among fans and a movement to save it. An online petition gained more than 110,000 signatures. Fans also raised money to have billboards put up in Times Square.

Addressing the cancellation at the time, Marling said she and Batmanglij were “deeply sad not to finish this story. The first time I heard the news I had a good cry. So did one of our executives at Netflix who has been with us since the early days when we were sketching out Hap’s basement on the floor of our production office in Queens.” She added, “While we cannot finish this story, I can promise you we will tell others. haven’t figured out any other effective coping mechanism for being alive in the Anthropocene. And maybe, in some ways, it’s okay not to conclude these characters.”