'Mare of Easttown' Creator Reveals What’s Preventing a Second Season

'Mare of Easttown' Creator Brad Ingelsby opened up about the potential second season of the massive HBO hit — read more

Will it live up to the first? That is one question that Mare of Easttown creator Brad Ingelsby is facing when trying to figure out whether the series, which became a massive hit for HBO, will return for a second season.

“If we can crack a story that is as great and that would do justice to the characters and carry on the story in a way that was organic and yet surprising, I would love to do it,” Ingelsby told TVLine in a new interview. “I just don’t know what the story is. That’s the issue right now.”

The drama, starring Kate Winslet, Jean Smart and Julianne Nicholson, came to an end in May after seven episodes and a murder mystery that continued unfolding until the very end.

The Way Back writer added that he’s hoping for a “lightbulb moment. … [But] it may never happen. That’s the reality.”

He continued: “We gave Mare such a personal arc where she had to confront this loss in her life, and we would have to construct another emotional arc that was able to compete with [that]. And I’m also acutely aware of the dangers of doing a season 2 just because you have the [opportunity] to do it. I would only want to do it if we were convinced we had something great.”

Mare of Easttown Finale Who Killed Erin Julianne Nicholson — Julianne Nicholson on ‘Mare of Easttown’ HBO

Winslet, for her part, is completely open to doing another season if the network is up for it.

“I would absolutely love to play Mare again. I miss her. I really do. It’s the strangest thing. I feel like I’m in mourning,” the Oscar winner, 45, told TVLine last month. “It was an absolutely wonderful role. There’s something very addictive about Mare because she’s so outrageous and lovable and brilliant and real. I loved playing her.”

The Titanic star also opened up to The New York Times about the role.

“Listen, I hope that in playing Mare as a middle-aged woman — I will be 46 in October — I guess that’s why people have connected with this character in the way that they have done because there are clearly no filters,” she explained. “She’s a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we’re starved of that a bit.”

Director Craig Zobel admitted in May that he has some interest in continuing the story in another season as well.

“I think that if enough fans are excited about it, I certainly am fascinated by Mare Sheehan, and it would be good if we could see her more,” he told Insider at the time.

Although Mare of Easttown is technically a limited series, HBO’s Big Little Lies was too. After its critically acclaimed first season, it was brought back for a sophomore season.