For the last couple of seasons, The Knick has garnered critical acclaim and a niche audience over at Cinemax. However, the show’s large cliffhanger at the end of Season 2 (no spoilers yet!) left many wondering whether or not The Knick would return for a third season. While Cinemax has stayed mum regarding whether or not the subscription cable channel wants the show back for another round, new reports indicate that The Knick will probably get a big Season 3 renewal, but with one change: Steven Soderbergh will be out.
The Season 2 finale was planned out from the time The Knick was coming together over at Cinemax. With the story arc of Doctor John Thackery presumably finished, Indiewire is now reporting The Knick is also looking for a new director for future seasons. Here’s what Soderbergh had to say:
I told them that I’m going to do the first two years and then we are going to break out the story for seasons 3 and 4 and try and find a filmmaker or filmmakers to do this the way that I did. This is how we want to do this so that every two years, whoever comes on, has the freedom to create their universe.
It’s hard to imagine The Knick would have a shelf life that would allow it to extend beyond four seasons. Hell, it’s hard to understand where The Knick could even go from here. Spoilers from this point on. In the Season 2 finale, we saw Clive Owen’s surgeon character decide to perform surgery on himself. Unfortunately, he seemingly succumbed to his wounds as the episode was ending, leaving The Knick in an odd place. Will it hop back into the past? Will it continue with a new lead protagonist? Is the death actually a fakeout? The latter is seemingly a no, as Soderbergh also said this:
We had the pictures of the guy that actually did this procedure on himself successfully and we knew how we we're going to kill him.
Yet, despite having to find a new director to replace Soderbergh, The Knick seems to be moving forward. In addition to the new report, a few days ago, we learned that Cinemax has also ordered a script for the first episode of Season 3. Jack Amiel and Michael Begler will also continue as showrunners moving forward. So, if you are keeping tabs on the series, you can probably breathe easy.
We’ll hopefully get official confirmation regarding The Knick Season 3 soon, but for now, you can up on the series over at Cinemax. Or see what else the networks have coming up this winter with our midseason TV premiere schedule.
