American Primeval Season 2 Is Unlikely, But a Decent Replacement May Be in the Works

All six episodes of the miniseries American Primeval have been released on Netflix. Showrunner Mark L. Smith, who previously wrote the script for Leonardo DiCaprio 's The Revenant, is well versed in the texture of a winter western.

The series has many characters and storylines: Mormons, cowboys, a mother and child, and soldiers all try to survive in Utah, where everyone is out for themselves.

American Primeval Wasn't Supposed to Have a Second Season

The series proved to be a hit – since its release on January 9, American Primeval has confidently held its position at the top of Netflix's most-watched series. Such success usually guarantees a second season for a show, but is that the case for American Primeval?

American Primeval was originally planned as a miniseries, and you can tell by the way the story ended – without any obvious cliffhangers or groundwork for a new season.

However, such a success cannot go unnoticed, and we saw an example of such a case last year. Shogun, a great drama from FX, which was also originally a miniseries, deservedly received the highest ratings from viewers and critics, became a hit in terms of viewership, and was renewed for a second season.

American Primeval Is Unlikely to Get a New Season, but Another Option Is Real

While a second season seems like the most likely solution for the creators of American Primeval, this time the producers are facing an obstacle that Shogun didn't have – child actors.

When asked about the possibility of a second season, director Peter Berg cited the challenges with child actors and the strike that halted filming.

According to Berg, actor Preston Mota changed dramatically during the five-month shutdown – he grew taller, his voice got deeper and he started growing hair on his face. The director added:

“It would be a real big time jump to keep that crew going, but the idea of looking backwards is really interesting to me.”

However, it seems that another option is giving the director more confidence, and that is a spin-off about Taylor Kitsch's character, Isaac Reed, a lonely cowboy who was supposed to help the main character get to California:

“We're talking about it right now. Good pick. That's the way we'd go if we do it, and I don't know if we will, but that would be the way we would go.”

During the filming of American Primeval, Taylor Kitsch broke his leg, but did not leave the set and selflessly continued to work in a cast. So the actor deserves his own spin-off – and so do fans!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter