One of the more popular TV dramas that not enough people actually talk about, Netflix's Ozark is gearing up for its Season 3 production in Atlanta. Fans don't know much about the crime drama's highly anticipated third season, beyond the fact that it's happening (unless Netflix suddenly says otherwise). Thankfully, showrunner Chris Mundy offered up one hell of a sweet detail that spells big trouble for Marty and Wendy Byrde: a bit of a family reunion is coming by way of Wendy's mysterious brother.
While any and all major details regarding Wendy's brother are obviously being kept under wraps, Mundy did say this about the Season 3 shake-ups for the Byrde family.
[They'll be] dealing with outside forces. . . . [Such as Wendy's brother],who we've hinted at the first couple years as having some mental illness in the past, so [her] big brother is going to be a very destabilizing factor.
Chris Mundy was speaking during an Ozark penal on Monday (via THR), and when he made that last comment about the brother's arrival being "destabilizing," it caused stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney to laugh. That must mean this new character has quite the negative impact on the Byrdes.
Without getting into big spoilers about where Season 2 went, I think it's more than safe to say that a lot of bodies have fallen across the two seasons, and Marty and Wendy got their hands dirty with many of them. Granted, sometimes the problems seemed to take care of themselves, such as how it went with the Snells. But other times, Marty & Co. have to take matters into their own hands.
What Do We Know About Wendy's Brother?
Just about everything we know of Wendy's brother, which is admittedly slight, speaks to his disturbed existence. The biggest pieces of "evidence" came in the verbal form back when Wendy and Marty were discussing their son Jonah's fascination with death.
Wendy referenced her brother and his history, and asked a vague question about whether that behavior is genetic, much to Marty's chagrin. She then posed a "what if" scenario about a "strange, beautiful kid who one days goes and shoots up a high school." It doesn't take a mind with a steel trap to connect the dots there.
Even if Wendy was being somewhat hyperbolic and wasn't directly implying that her brother was responsible for a school shooting, she's connoting that he's guilty of something along those same serious and tragic lines. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have been as concerned about Jonah's death-centric maturity.
One has to wonder what kind of life situation Wendy's brother is dealing with. If he did commit a school shooting as a teenager, it's possible he could be walking around as a free adult. Although depending on what actual crimes he committed, the brother could just as easily be held in some kind of a mental care facility. Sadly, Chris Mundy didn't offer up any more details on that front.
Will Ozark Last Longer Than Three Seasons?
After the events of Season 2, the Byrdes could actually use a little rest, relaxation and peace, but that would clearly be asking for too much. So more trouble it is. But how long will complicated financial issues keep landing on Marty and Wendy's doorstep?
At this point, showrunner Chris Mundy is still hoping for a nice round number of Ozark seasons. In his words:
We've always talked about it as five seasons. It could be four, it could be seven ... but that always seemed like a good number to us.
It occasionally stretches the bonds of realism whenever a hectic crime drama centered on "ordinary people" goes on for too many years. Writers tend to fix that up by keeping a series' narrative far more limited than the show's seasonal lifeline, and Ozark has done a solid job on that front. So it could feasibly reach five seasons, or possibly even seven, without becoming illogically cartoonish in terms of its plotlines. (Although I'd lo-o-ove to watch a fifth Ozark season as crafted by Gotham's creative team.)
However, for any goals or plans that Chris Mundy might have for Ozark in the future, the show's fate definitely doesn't just rest on his shoulders. That decision will be made by Netflix execs, and these are the kinds of Netflix execs that had made a general habit of canceling shows after their third seasons. (Daredevil, One Day at a Time, Santa Clarita Diet and more, to name just a few.)
So it's relatively impossible to say at this point how Netflix will handle Ozark's future. Assuming audiences keep tuning in with the quickness, it's possible the darkly comedic crime drama could last even longer than Chris Mundy expects.
Ozark Season 3 is set to go into production in Atlanta in the coming weeks. Jason Bateman, per usual, is likely set to direct the season's first two episodes. (He's also directing that Netflix movie with John Cena.) For those who need some catching up, Seasons 1 and 2 are currently available to stream in full on Netflix.
