Source: The official Hemlock Grove Facebook site.
Netflix (NFLX -3.01%) has ordered a third season of horror show Hemlock Grove.
Fans of the werewolves-and-vampires yarn had started to lose hope. In 2013, the second season was scheduled just a couple of weeks after the binge-friendly premiere of season one. This summer, the news came nearly two months after season two's July bow. When asked about future seasons, horror master and executive producer Eli Roth simply dodged the question.
"The best policy for us is to just focus on one season at a time, and make it be great," he told genre magazine Fangoria in late July. "If you make it great and people watch it, we'll be lucky enough to do a third season, which we'd love to do."
So, Hemlock Grove is back for a third season, featuring 10 more episodes. On the other hand, this season will definitely be the last.
Netflix made no bones about it in press materials. The news is presented as "the third and final season," and Roth gushes about the opportunity to go out with a bang.
"Knowing it will be our last, gives us the opportunity to go out in a mushroom cloud of clever and soul-shattering mayhem," Roth said.
Eli Roth is definitely back for the final swing, alongside showrunner Chic Eglee. Beyond that, Netflix and production studio Gaumont were light on third-seasons details.
The press release didn't go into detail on which actors from the first two seasons might be back. Given the lengthy delay of this renewal, I wouldn't be surprised to find a couple of stars accepting jobs elsewhere on a conflicting production schedule. Then again, maybe the news came late exactly because Netflix wanted to hammer out contract details with its key characters?
We'll know more in the coming weeks, as production news is bound to leak out via interviews and social media. I do expect things to be different and -- above all -- unpredictable. Unlike Game of Thrones, which is held reasonably close to George R.R. Martin's novel series, Hemlock Grove creator Brian McGreevy spent eight years developing one novel, which became the basis for season one. By the second season, there's no canonical written material to work with, giving Roth and Eglee entirely free reins.
In the meantime, it looks like fan support inspired Netflix to renew this series. Roth thanked fans for championing the series over two seasons, and Gaumont International Television CEO Katie O'Connell followed suit: "We are thrilled Netflix recognizes [the amazing fan support] and is rewarding the fans with a third and final season," she said.
Netflix doesn't make series orders on a whim. The company listened to Hemlock Grove fans, glanced at its secret viewership statistics for the show, and gave Eli Roth another call. There's enough evidence to make this show worth another investment. It's just a shame that fans and Netflix investors don't get to see all the data.
Set to debut in the summer of 2015, Hemlock Grove is preparing to mess with horror devotees' minds one more time.
