The end is nigh for cult drama series The Leftovers, now that HBO has ordered a third and final season of Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta’s adaptation.
Having only wrapped up its rather brilliant sophomore season only last week, news of a renewal will be bittersweet to ardent fans of HBO’s cult series, though HBO programming president Michael Lombardo is ready to bring a “definitive” end to The Leftovers, and hopes that Lindelof, Perrotta and the remainder of the writing team can wrap up the story with a conclusive and satisfactory ending.
“As we finished our most recent season, it became clear to us that the series as a whole was following the same model…and with our beginning and middle complete, the most exciting thing for us as storytellers would be to bring ‘The Leftovers’ to a definitive end. And by ‘definitive,’ we mean ‘wildly ambiguous but hopefully mega-emotional,’ as all things related to this show are destined to be.”
For the uninitiated, HBO’s drama series orbits around a mysterious, rapturous event known as the “sudden departure,” plucking close to 140 million from the face of the earth without an explanation. An intriguing premise, no doubt, but critics questioned whether the show had legs upon its debut. Then again, an acclaimed sophomore outing saw viewing records spike, meaning that the likes of Justin Theroux, Amy Brenneman, Liv Tyler and Christopher Eccleston – who topline the drama as the title Leftovers – will be returning to the small screen in 2016.
The Leftovers season 2 had its swan song on December 6, though fans can rest assured that there will at least be more content to look forward to, even if it is designed to close the book on HBO’s short-lives series. Theroux, Brenneman, Tyler and Eccleston are all expected to return for the third and final outing.