Not every series is lucky enough to be renewed for several seasons, with a plethora never even making it past the pilot stage of development. Meanwhile, dozens of shows only get one season to prove themselves to viewers before being cancelled altogether. Such is the case with Stephen King’s The Outsider, which was cancelled by HBO and will not be getting a Season 2. Luckily for fans, there is still hope that the series could return.
The Outsider, an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2018 horror novel, has been cancelled after just one season. The series premiered on HBO in January and received generally positive reviews. In October, King revealed that scripts for a potential Season 2 had already been written despite no news on the renewal front. Now, it’s official: The Outsider will not be back for another season on the premium channel.
The good news is that the cancellation doesn’t necessarily mark the end of The Outsider. Per Deadline, the drama will be shopped around to other networks and streaming services by MRC, the company that produced the show. That’s great news because it means there’s a chance that The Outsider will get to carry on its storyline and further expand the world that was first established in Season 1.
What’s more, MRC was the studio that produced Netflix’s House of Cards and Ozark, so it’s possible the HBO series could land on the streaming service in the future. That said, nothing has been confirmed just yet beyond the cancellation. The initial pitch for The Outsider reportedly included a potential expansion beyond the pages of Stephen King’s novel, with executive producer Richard Price given the go-ahead to write the story focused on Cynthia Erivo’s Season 1 character.
However, the folks at HBO decided to keep The Outsider as a limited series instead of moving forward with the proposed idea for Season 2. In that vein, the HBO cancellation comes less as a surprise and more of a roadblock towards a potential Season 2. In a statement, MRC Television President Elise Henderson had this to say about the show’s path moving forward:
We thank HBO for a great partnership in the first season and for helping to bring in a massive audience who fell in love with The Outsider. We are looking forward to finding a new home for this remarkable series.
The Outsider follows an investigation into the murder of a young boy. When Ben Mendelsohn’s Detective Ralph Anderson struggles with finding answers, he calls in Cynthia Erivo’s Holly Gibney, a private investigator, to help. The ratings also saw an impressive increase over the show’s first season, going from a little over 700,000 to 1.371 million viewers by the season finale. All that said, I’m sure that dedicated fans will follow The Outsider no matter where it might land in the future.
The Outsider is currently available to watch on HBO Max. While waiting for updates on the show, be sure to check out our 2020 fall TV premiere guide.
