This may be the longest gap ever between a season of a TV series getting a greenlight and it going into production. Filming will begin this fall in New York on Season 2 of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s The Watcher four years after the horror mystery series was renewed in November 2022.
Coming back for the new installment are leads Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as well as fellow main cast members Margo Martindale and Isabel Gravitt. Watts, Cannavale and Gravitt will reprise their roles as Nora Brannock, her husband Dean Brannock and their daughter Ellie Brannock, respectively. MIA is the couple’s son Carter, played in Season 1 by Luke David Blumm. Martindale’s return means good news for her character, the Brannocks’ nosy neighbor Maureen (“Mo”) who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at the end of Season 2. (Mo’s husband, played by Richard Kind, died during the first season.)
The Watcher and another Murphy and Brennan series for Netflix, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, debuted within a couple of weeks of each other in fall 2022, both stemming from Murphy’s big five-year overall deal with the streamer.
Both did well, especially Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which remains on Netflix’s Top 10 most popular English series list, leading to the Nov. 7, 2022 renewals for Season 2 of The Watcher and Seasons 2 and 3 of Monster. Work started right away on Monster, which has now released three more seasons, while The Watcher remained dormant, raising questions whether the second season would ever be made, especially after Murphy left Netflix after his overall deal came to an end a few months after the renewal to return to 20th Television at Disney, ramping up new development and production right away.
Margo Martindale and Isabel Gravitt in ‘The Watcher’
Netflix
Brennan will serve as showrunner on Season 2 of The Watcher, a role he also holds on Monster. Murphy executive produces both series while shepherding his slate under the overall deal at 20th TV, which pays his overhead.
It was the other way around while he was at Netflix. During his exclusive deal at the streamer, he executive produced five seasons of then-Fox’s 9-1-1, four seasons each of Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star and FX’s American Horror Story, two seasons of FX’s Pose, two seasons of FX’s American Horror Stories, and one installment of FX’s American Crime Story.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos referenced the predicament when speaking about the streamer’s overall deals at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference Wednesday.
“A big challenge, I think even in the Ryan Murphy deal when we brought it on, was he had all these commitments to everybody else,” he said.
While the time passed between a season’s order and its start of production may be a record, The Watcher‘s second installment will likely be released next year, making for a five-year gap between consecutive seasons’ release, shy of the six-year record for a U.S. series held by HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Season 1 of The Watcher followed the Brannock family who moved into what was supposed to be their suburban dream home, and quickly became a living hell. Ominous letters from someone calling themself “The Watcher” were just the beginning as the neighborhood’s sinister secrets came spilling out.
The season ended with the Brannocks moving out of the house to a New York apartment but Dean and Nora found themselves pulled back to the house.
The Watcher spent 5 weeks on the Global Top 10 English TV list and hit the Top 10 in more than 90 countries.
Series creators Murphy and Brennan executive produce with Crystle Roberson Dorsey (EP/Director), Nissa Diederich, Karl Frankenfield, Scott Robertson, Todd Kubrak, Tanase Popa, Watts, Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman, Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless.
The latest, fourth season of Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime anthology series Monster, The Lizzie Borden Story, has held the #1 spot on the Global Top 10 English TV list since its premiere on September 17, amassing 26.6M views to date.