HBO Renews ‘The Leftovers’ for Season Three

HBO has renewed drama The Leftovers for a third and final season. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, the series is produced for HBO by White Rabbit in association with Warner Bros. Television.

“It is with great enthusiasm that we welcome back Damon Lindelof, Tom Perrotta and the extraordinary talent behind The Leftovers,” said Michael Lombardo, president, HBO programming. “This show has proven to be one of the most distinctive HBO series and we are extremely proud of its unrivaled originality, which has resulted in such a passionate following by our HBO viewers. We admire and fully support Damon’s artistic vision and respect his decision to bring the show to its conclusion next season.”

The series is based on a Perrotta novel in which a giant swath of the world population disappears without a trace. The second season finale aired Dec. 6.

“I have never, ever experienced the level of creative support and trust that I have received from HBO,” said showrunner Lindelof. “Tom, myself and our incredible team of writers and producers put tremendous care into designing those seasons as novels unto themselves, with beginnings, middles and ends. As we finished our most recent season, it became clear to us that the series as a whole was following the same model…and with our beginning and middle complete, the most exciting thing for us as storytellers would be to bring The Leftovers to a definitive end. And by ‘definitive,’ we mean ‘wildly ambiguous but hopefully mega-emotional,’ as all things related to this show are destined to be.”

Season two cast included Justin Theroux, Amy Brenneman, Christopher Eccleston and Liv Tyler.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.