Mare of Easttown Season 2? Kate Winslet Has Heard Some “Very Cool” Ideas

Looking back, it seems foolish to ever have believed that the seven-episode miniseries Mare of Easttown would end up being just that: a seven-episode miniseries. After all, the murder mystery, starring Kate Winslet as the titular detective, Mare Sheehan, was popular enough to introduce the portmanteau “DelCo” into the wider lexicon. (If you somehow weren’t among the many who tuned in earlier this year, that would be Delaware County, an area of Pennsylvania known for its many Wawas and accent best characterized by the pronunciation of “water” as “wooder.”) Add its 16 newly announced Emmy nominations—including one for Outstanding Limited Series—to that list and you won’t be at all surprised to hear that Winslet is teasing the possibility of a season 2.

“At the end of shooting we were like, ‘Holy hell, we can never do that again. If HBO brings up the idea of a season 2, we all just have to say absolutely not. There’s just no way we could possibly do it,’” Winslet told Entertainment Weekly on Monday. Evidently, things have changed in the couple of months since the finale aired—crashing the HBO Max app for several hours in the process. “And then there was talk, like, could there be? Especially when the show was getting such good responses,” she continued. At this point, she can confirm that “creatively,” creator Brad Inglesby has “some very cool ideas.”

There’s been no word from HBO since June, when the network’s programming chief, Casey Bloys, said there had been “no real conversations about what a season 2 would look like.” And for now, Winslet isn’t making any promises either: “We will see what happens.” It wasn’t too long ago that Winslet assured TVLine she would “absolutely love to play Mare again,” missing the tortured detective to the point that it felt like mourning. In reality, though, it’s not that easy.

“I also have to figure out if I can do it,” Winslet told Entertainment Weekly of reprising the role. “Can I go through it again? It did cost me a lot emotionally to be her, and I have to figure out if I can summon it all up again and do it again.” If her mastery of the DelCo accent is any indication, though, the Reading, England-born actor can do anything. Besides, it might be worth it just for the hoagies.