Will M. Night Shyamalan's 'Wayward Pines' Return for Season 3?

08/31/2017 03:51 pm EDT

In 2015, Fox's mysterious Wayward Pines TV series won the summer and became the season's most-watched scripted series on broadcast television. The second season of the anthology series, however, failed to capture what appealed to audiences, drawing harshly mixed reviews. Despite the disappointing last season, Fox Entertainment president David Madden explained that there could be a third season on the way.

"We don't know yet," Madden confessed at the Television Critics Association press event, according to Deadline. "[Executive Producer] M. Night [Shyamalan] has talked to both Dana and me recently about the possibilities of what a third season could be. We are exploring story and casting ideas; we haven't made any decisions."

In the first season, Matt Dillon played a Secret Service agent investigating the disappearance of two of his fellow agents in the small town of Wayward Pines, ID. This is merely the beginning of the strange occurrences, as his character discovers that the residents of this small town are unable to leave the community due to an electrified barrier and tyrannical sheriff who executes anyone attempting to leave. Jason Patric starred in the second season of the series, which explored some of the town's mysterious origins.

Between shows like American Horror Story and Channel Zero, genre TV series have a large audience right now, which has made the delay in developing a third season surprising.

Since the debut of the first season, Shyamalan has directed the found footage thriller The Visit, about two grandchildren discovering the bizarre behavior of their grandparents during a routine visit and earlier this year, the director found success with Split, about a kidnapper with split personalities. The back-to-back successes of the films follows a string of poorly received films from the director, leading to a career resurgence.

It's possible that, due to his recent successes, Shyamalan has shifted focus away from television completely. Another one of his recent projects, a reboot of a Tales from the Crypt TV series, recently ran into issues with rights and TNT has put the series on an indefinite hiatus.

One of the filmmaker's next movies will be Glass, a sequel to both Split and Unbreakable. Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, and James McAvoy are all scheduled to return for the film.

Glass is set to hit theaters January 18, 2019.

Disclosure: PopCulture. is owned by Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.