The OA Co-Creator Has Hopeful Response to Season 3 Revival

Much like fans, co-creator and star Brit Marling isn't giving up hope.

By Patrick Cavanaugh

Back in 2019, Netflix made the disappointing decision not to renew The OA, a series whose unexpected final episode left a narrative cliffhanger, devastating fans worldwide. While it wasn't the first series that Netflix scrapped, it marked a significant decision for the streamer, as it came at a time when it seemed like the platform was committed to allowing filmmakers to tell cohesive and complete storylines, with its cancellation resulting in fan campaigns and outcries to bring the series back. Co-creator and star Brit Marling also isn't ready to leave the series behind definitively, despite there not being any significant momentum on the series' return.

"What's so sad is we even cried with our executives. Some of the fans are upset with Netflix, and I try to explain: The people who were really there making it loved it, too, and gave everything to it," Marling shared with Vulture. "I think the strikes have made it more apparent that there was a whole shift in the model of the entire business. Everybody suddenly had to make more, make it for less, make it appeal all over the world at the same time. And OA, despite its huge and loyal following, just fell in that gap."

She added, "But I think about it all the time. And some part of me -- I don't feel that it's ended. In my mind, I understand that it's ended. But in my body, I feel like it's something that has gone dormant. If the right conditions and circumstances come again, it will grow. I really do think that."

Marling went on to note how she understands the legal complexities of developing a TV series, in that Netflix owns the rights to the series even if she has ideas for the franchise's future, though isn't putting a deadline on when a Season 3 could come to fruition.

"The fundamental thing that's at the core of the Faustian bargain of Hollywood is that the writers don't own their copyright, which is insane. Imagine a novelist spending five years writing an original idea from scratch that came out of their brains, and then they didn't own the right to the thing that they made. It's cuckoo bananas," Marling pointed out. "The OA is something Zal [Batmanglij] and I spent years dreaming up, but we don't own the rights to that material. That said, Twin Peaks came back after a period of time. It's not legally impossible. Zal and I talk about it. There will be a moment and we'll be like, 'This is so The OA.' And we'll file it away. It might have been that it just came a little bit before its time and some things just have to happen in the world and then it'll come back."

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Stay tuned for updates on the possible future of The OA.

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