Despite initially being confirmed to return for a second season by author Stephen King, HBO decided to end The Outsider after a single season, and now, we have a reason as to why the series was suddenly cancelled.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, HBO’s chief content officer Casey Bloys explained that The Outsider was cancelled due to being unable to find a story worth telling that would match the first season.
“We try to approach everything as if there’s going to be Season 2. It’s always hard,” Bloys said. “And it’s always a challenge when you have something that is based on a book and obviously with The Outsider you’ve got a great roadmap. So if you’re going to go and do more without that, you got to make really sure there’s a story to tell. We just didn’t feel like we landed on a story that would live up to the first season.”
Although HBO has decided not to move forward with a second season, MRC, the studio behind the drama series adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, has reportedly been shopping the series elsewhere to other “premium networks and streamers.” There is no news on whether The Outsider has been picked up by other streaming services as of yet.
The Outsider follows police detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn), as he sets out to investigate the mutilated body of 11-year-old Frankie Peterson found in the Georgia woods with the help of unorthodox private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), whose uncanny abilities can help explain the unexplainable circumstances surrounding the murder. The series also featured a cast including Jason Bateman, Bill Camp, Mare Winningham, Paddy Considine, Julianne Nicholson, Yul Vázquez, Jeremy Bobb, and Marc Menchaca.
