While the Netflix show “Ripley” was released last weekend as a “limited series,” show creator Steve Zaillian believes it could have a second season and more. However, he'll require a break beforehand.
The eight-episode “Ripley,” written and directed entirely by Zaillian, is based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and stars Andrew Scott as the title character, a forger who infiltrates the life of trust fund playboy Dickie Greenleaf (played by Johnny Flynn) in Europe. The plot quickly turns to murder, and Ripley must adjust and transform himself in order to survive.
There are several more books featuring the character Tom Ripley beyond “Talented Mr. Ripley,” and Zaillian expressed interest in continuing the story if Netflix is interested.
“I think other ones are certainly possible. We have the rights to all the books, so we could do it. I’ll need a little break but yeah, I think he’s a good enough character that you could do more.”
Scott did not reject the idea in a separate interview with TheWrap, but the actor from “All of Us Strangers” mentioned that the process of making the first season was exhausting.
“It’s been such a long, long process with this one. I’m just very interested to see how this one goes out,” he said, then added with a laugh, “To be honest, after this year, I’m just looking forward to taking a break.”
The Tom Ripley character is featured in a total of five Highsmith novels, with the most recent one, “Ripley Under Water,” published in 1991. The Netflix series concludes the “Talented Mr. Ripley” storyline, but also sets up Scott’s character for more adventures with the police on his trail. The core of the Tom Ripley stories is a cat-and-mouse game in which Tom almost gets caught but always escapes.
“Ripley” was initially developed and produced by Showtime as an ongoing drama series, but the network transferred the show to Netflix in February 2023. Despite the streamer promoting and releasing the show as a limited series, other shows initially planned as limited series have continued with subsequent seasons in either serialized (“Big Little Lies”) or anthology (“True Detective”) formats.
Netflix has not publicly announced whether a continuation is possible and has not commissioned any additional episodes. The streaming service is campaigning “Ripley” for the current Emmys cycle in the limited series category.
Benjamin Lindsay contributed to this story.
