One of the best HBO shows of the last 10 years is returning to screens – but in a rather roundabout way.
Ever since Mare of Easttown aired in 2021, fans have been wondering whether they’d see Kate Winslet’s small-town Pennsylvanian police officer again.
With HBO confirming that it’s considering a second season of the show, movements are being made in that direction – but it’s been revealed that another of the network’s shows, Task, is actually set in the same universe as the show. Not only that, but Julianne Nicholson will reprise her Mare of Easttown role in season two of the detective drama starring Mark Ruffalo.
Nicholson won an Emmy for playing Lori, the sister of Winslet’s lead character, in Mare of Easttown, and it’s unknown how she’ll factor into the plot of Task, which will see Ruffalo’s Tom Brandis heading up a new task force. Both shows were created by Brad Inglesby.
The cast of Task season two also includes Mahershala Ali, Harry Melling, Adam Nagaitis, Aminah Nieves and Edgar Ramirez.
In 2024, HBO’s head of drama Francesca Orsi, addressing a possible Mare of Easttown follow-up, said that “while there’s nothing in the works, we are having early discussions about whether it might be time to start thinking of building something”.
She continued: “We might be willing to figure out with Mare, years later, picking her up – not on the heels of where she ended, but there have been years for the character that have passed. Who is she now?”
Following its debut, Mare of Easttown was a hit with viewers and critics. “Kate Winslet is undimmable despite the encompassing gloom,” Ed Cumming wrote in The Independent’s four-star review.
Winslet has previously spoken about the idea of a second season, telling Entertainment Weekly in August 2021 that Ingelsby had come up with some “very cool ideas” for a storyline.
“At the end of shooting, we were like, ‘Holy hell we can never do that again. If HBO brings up the idea of a season two, we all just have to say absolutely not. There’s just no way we could possibly do it,’” the Titanic star said at the time.
“And then there was talk, like, could there be? Especially when the show was getting such good responses… Creatively, Brad has shared some very cool ideas. We will see what happens. I also have to figure out if I can do it. Can I go through it again? It did cost me a lot emotionally to be her, and I have to figure out if I can summon it all up again and do it again.”
Whether Winslet could make a cameo in Task season two remains to be seen.
Nicholson’s other credits include TV shows The Outsider, Paradise and Hacks, as well as films August: Osage County and Who We Are Now.
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