Most Wayward Pines fans had likely given up hope for Season 3's chances a long time ago, but there are definitely still some out there holding onto the vague hopes that Fox would keep the insanity going. Unfortunately, 19 months after the Season 2 came to its creepy close, it appears Wayward Pines' future won't be a reality, as the network has reportedly cancelled the series.
Viewers bid farewell to Wayward Pines Season 2 back in July of 2016, and it seemed all but imminent that Fox would be making a cancellation announcement at some point after that. However, both the network and executive producer M. Night Shyamalan kept Season 3 hopes alive by teasing a potential next chapter for the futuristic thriller, and they did so several times throughout the rest of 2016 and 2017. But considering Shyamalan is busy with his Unbreakable sequel and other projects, and the fact that the large interim likely meant most of Wayward Pines' stars would be unavailable. Again.
It's kind of astounding that we're giving up hopes on Wayward Pines Season 3 in the early months of 2018, considering Fox first ordered the series back in May of 2013. It took a full two years for Wayward Pines to come together to make its May 2015 premiere, and anyone who believed its "limited series" label at time time was certainly shocked when Fox ordered a second season due to impressive ratings. And Season 2 ushered in the show's initial bout with casting restructuring happened.
Because it took so long to put Season 1 out to audiences, many of the actors weren't able to return in full, or at all, so quite a few narrative jumps were necessary. And even that was a major hassle, since the first season adapted all three books inBlake Couch's novel trilogy, leaving no major pieces of source material to draw from. That would be an understandable reason why Season 3 was taking so long to develop. The first season was able to play with time and setting in laying its mystery out, while Season 2 turned into more of a faction-based creature feature. Season 3 would likely have followed up on the humans waking from cryo to witness how their virus plan worked on the Abbies, as well as following up on that last scene, in which an Abbie is totally holding onto a human baby.
TVLine's report, which does point out that the cancellation technically hasn't been made "official" by the network, does not indicate that Wayward Pines could continue on in any other forms. But with similar mythology-building shows like Firefly and The X-Files (among others), Fox has been known to license out properties to continue on in comic book form. I can't be alone in thinking Wayward Pines would be absolutely perfect in that format, where the only limitations would be the writer and artist's imaginations.
While Wayward Pines fans no longer have any new episodes to look forward to, all 20 episodes of the mystery thriller can currently be found on Hulu for streaming purposes. If you're in need of another show to step in and take the pain away, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what's on the way.
