Last week, Steven Soderbergh popped up online for a Reddit AMA, and there was a lot to digest. One nugget we missed on first glance might be the best of everything the director revealed in his chat: his idea for “The Knick” season 3.
This spring, Cinemax officially canceled the terrific medical series, but not before there was plenty of talk about where it could go next. Last year, Soderbergh revealed that he and writers had already come up with ideas for the next two “pretty extreme” seasons of the show, with plans to pitch the network. The idea was to continue the “The Knick,” but with an entirely new cast, with Soderbergh himself possibly returning behind the camera (he shot every episode of the show’s two seasons). However, it sounds like his plans were so ambitious they scared off the network.
Wow, that sounds pretty incredible, and it’s a shame that Cinemax weren’t brave enough to run with it. That being said, the network’s mandate isn’t exactly to push the envelope, but instead work within expected genre expectations. But given their kind of forgettable slate at the moment, you have to wonder what it would’ve hurt them to give Soderbergh and his team some space to play.
It’ll remain one of the “Oh, what could’ve been” tales of television, and given how much Soderbergh was creatively inspired working on “The Knick,” we can only wonder at what he would’ve done with a third season….
The director’s next effort, “Logan Lucky,” opens on August 18th.