While many Stephen King fans’ eyes were on big-budget adaptations of his works like Dark Tower and IT, an adaptation was airing on AT&T’s Audience Network of Mr. Mercedes. The show might have flown below some fans’ radars, but the series proved successful enough that it will be getting a second season.
TV Line reported that the series from showrunner David E. Kelley (Big Little Lies) and director Jack Bender (Game of Thrones) will get another season, while the 10-episode first season wraps up this week. Production for the second season is said to begin in February, potentially resulting in another summer airing.
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Based on Stephen King’s 2014 book, Mr. Mercedes follows demented killer Brady Hartsfield, who taunts a retired police detective Bill Hodges with a series of lurid letters and emails, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice before he is able to strike again.
Brendan Gleeson leads as Detective Bill Hodges, along with Harry Treadaway (Penny Dreadful) as Brady Hartsfield. Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight) is cast as Jerome Robinson, Scott Lawrence (Avatar) as Detective Peter Dixon, Robert Stanton (Mercury Rising) as Anthony “Robi” Frobisher, and Ann Cusack (Nightcrawler) as Olivia Trelawney, with Mary Louise-Parker (Weeds) as Janey Patterson, and Holland Taylor (The Truman Show) as Ida Silver. Kelly Lynch (Deborah Hartsfield), Justine Lupe (Holly Gibney) and Breeda Wool (Lou Linklatter) also star.
UP NEXT: Stephen King Explains the Surge in Adaptations of His Stories
There is a trilogy of books that explore these characters, with Mr. Mercedes being just the first in the series. Kelley recently revealed to The Hollywood Reporter the strategy of making subsequent seasons.
“The master plan, which of course is always subject to change, is each book would represent a whole season, and Mr. Mercedes is the first season,” Kelley explained. “Then we’ll turn to season two and the second book, but we haven’t congregated as a writing group yet and begun to kick around stories for year two, so it’s premature to say anything beyond that. But the concept, in success, is we would do each book as an entire season of 10 episodes.”
The source material might only consist of three books, but Kelley will happily make more seasons.
“Yes, initially, though in success it could go on beyond that,” Kelley shared of the series running three seasons. “That’s everybody’s plan, isn’t it? You keep going and going and you keep finding more new stories. But going into this, the idea is that we have three books and in success it would make for three seasons and then, who knows? Maybe longer if we’re having fun.”
Catch the season finale of Mr. Mercedes Wednesday night.
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