Manifest season 4 might be happening on Netflix after all. As of now, Netflix is reportedly closing in on a deal after “complex negotiations” with Warner Bros. Television to order a fourth season of the hit sci-fi series. The studio has also started negotiations with the Manifest cast along with a mix of new and returning writers for season 4. Things could still change heading into the end here, but things certainly look much more promising now than they did earlier this summer.
Despite the popularity of the series, which found an even greater audience when its earlier seasons started streaming on Netflix, NBC cancelled Manifest after three seasons in June. Initially, Netflix took an interest in saving the series only to end up passing when negotiations stalled. Unwilling to accept that this was the end of the road, Manifest fans banded together to make their voices heard with a #SaveManifest campaign on social media. The series would also remain one of the most-watched shows on Netflix even after the news of its cancellation.
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At that point, NBCUniversal had reportedly looked back into renewing Manifest to put on either NBC or Peacock. Deadline reports that the company is no longer in contention for the show with Netflix and Warner Bros. TV’s negotiations moving along so well. There’s speculation that Netflix was hesitant to save the show previously as they’d only have the U.S. streaming rights, as the company typically prefers to take on the worldwide rights to all existing seasons of the shows they pick up.
Even so, the fan demand for new episodes was impossible for Netflix to ignore. Because Netflix found great success with Lucifer when the streamer chose to save that series, even though it similarly came with issues in securing the worldwide streaming rights, the template is there for something similar to happen with Manifest. It would seem that Netflix will only go down that road if there’s a good likelihood that the show will be a hit, and given the continued popularity for Manifest, it seems to be a safe gamble.
Series creator Jeff Rake had originally conceived for Manifest to have a six-season run, and its third season on NBC ended on a cliffhanger with many unanswered questions. On social media, Rake had also been very active with the #SaveManifest campaign, frequently interacting with fans and encourage them to keep up the fight to revive the show. Rake noted how desperately fans wanted to see what was coming next for the hit series after putting in so much investment. At one point, he was plotting a 2-hour movie to serve as a finale if resuming the series wasn’t an option.
“Back in the day, I laid out a six-season roadmap for NBC, and I’m halfway through. I had giant cliffhangers in the season 3 finale, so I had every intention to have three more seasons to slow-burn the back half of the story,” Rake told EW in June. “I am personally sketching out how to consolidate the back half of the series into a much more streamlined, cut-to-the-chase two-hour finale that would distill all of the hanging chads of the series. That’s where my head is at. There is a huge appetite for people wanting to know what’s that end of the story, what happened to the passengers, what ultimately happened to that airplane.”
Let’s hope more good news is coming soon relating to the future of Manifest. For now, fans can watch the first two seasons on Netflix. This news comes to us from Deadline.
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