Netflix’s The Watcher is finally moving forward with its long-awaited second season, with production set to begin this fall in New York — nearly four years after the horror mystery series was renewed.
Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s series received its Season 2 renewal in November 2022, shortly after its debut on Netflix. The lengthy gap between the renewal and production could make The Watcher one of the longest-running waits between a television series receiving a greenlight and actually beginning filming.
Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale are returning as Nora and Dean Brannock, along with Isabel Gravitt as their daughter, Ellie. Margo Martindale is also set to reprise her role as the Brannocks’ nosy neighbor, Maureen “Mo.”
One notable absence from the returning cast is Luke David Blumm, who played the Brannocks’ son, Carter, in the first season.
Martindale’s return is particularly significant for fans of the series. Mo was diagnosed with terminal cancer toward the end of Season 1, while her husband, played by Richard Kind, was killed during the first season.
The Watcher premiered in the fall of 2022 alongside another Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan Netflix production, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. Both series were developed as part of Murphy’s then-new five-year overall deal with Netflix.
While Monster became a major success for the streamer and remains among Netflix’s most-watched English-language series, The Watcher also performed strongly enough to receive a renewal. Netflix announced on November 7, 2022, that The Watcher would return for a second season, while Monster was renewed for Seasons 2 and 3.
Production on Monster moved ahead relatively quickly, eventually resulting in three additional seasons. The Watcher, meanwhile, remained dormant for years, leaving its future uncertain.
The delay became even more notable after Murphy’s overall deal with Netflix ended and he returned to 20th Television at Disney, where he quickly resumed developing and producing new projects.
Brennan will serve as showrunner for Season 2 of The Watcher, a position he also holds on the Monster franchise. Murphy will remain an executive producer on both series while continuing to develop projects under his 20th Television arrangement.
The situation also highlights the difference between Murphy’s workload during his exclusive Netflix deal and his current arrangement. During his time at Netflix, he was involved in a broad slate of productions, including five seasons of 9-1-1, four seasons each of 9-1-1: Lone Star and American Horror Story, two seasons of Pose, two seasons of American Horror Stories, and one season of American Crime Story.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos recently addressed the challenges surrounding large overall deals while speaking at Bloomberg’s Screentime conference.
“One of the big challenges,” Sarandos said, referring to Murphy’s Netflix deal, was that Murphy “had all these commitments to everybody else.”
Despite the unusually long wait, The Watcher Season 2 is now expected to move into production this fall. If the new season arrives sometime in 2027, viewers will have waited roughly five years between seasons.
That would still fall short of the record for the longest gap between seasons of a U.S. television series. HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm currently holds that distinction, with approximately six years separating its eighth and ninth seasons.
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