In an interview this week with James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King revealed that HBO will be making a second season of The Outsider.
The series, which was adapted from his 2018 novel of the same name, had a phenomenal first season. It also concluded in basically the same manner as it’s source material, although the finale left a bit more wiggle room for the story to continue.
The Outsider (HBO)
During his interview with Hibberd, King discussed the ways his interpretation of Holly Gibney differed from how she was portrayed by Cynthia Erivo in The Outsider and Justine Lupe in Mr. Mercedes. While keying in on Erivo’s brilliant performance, he dropped this tantalizing nugget of info:
[The Outsider showrunner] Richard Price’s concept of Holly was a little bit different than mine. My Holly is kind of an obsessive-compulsive person who comes out of her shell a little by little as the books go forward, until she can stand on her own by the time you get to [her story in] If It Bleeds. One of the most interesting things when you watch [Mr. Mercedes] is you see how Holly’s clothes change as the series goes on. You can see that confidence. It’s genius to see her blossom in terms of what she wears and how her hair is and all that. Justine Lupe got into that character and did a terrific job with it because she had more time to develop Holly [across three seasons].
Cynthia may get that time, because there’s going to be a second season of The Outsider as soon as they can get the production going. And she’s terrific, but she’s more someone who is kind of almost on the spectrum; a little bit of a savant with the memory of license plates and cars and baseball. One of the funniest things is she knows who’s won all these baseball games going back to the ’50s, but she never watches.
Before you write that off as wishful thinking, King followed up with an even more concrete declaration when Hibberd asked if he knew where the story would go in Season 2:
I know exactly where it’s going because I have seen some of the scripts. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. I’ll just say that it’s really great and a real spooky paranormal element.
King noted that Erivo’s version of Holly likely wouldn’t branch off into the stand alone storyline he wrote for her in If It Bleeds (which is also fantastic) due to how much her story diverges from the source material.
If Mr. Mercedes is greenlit for a fourth season, however, then it might be in the cards for Lupe.
Either way, getting more Holly Gibney–and more of Stephen King’s most successful television adaptations BY FAR–is great news. King also went in depth with Hibberd about Mr. Mercedes (which I really need to watch) and the upcoming adaptation of The Stand (which I cannot wait to watch).
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go put on “Washington Square” by the Village Stompers and start theorizing where Holly Gibney and The Outsider will go next.
The Outsider (HBO)
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