“The Flight Attendant” has become one of the buzziest shows on HBO Max, not to mention an award-winning hit that earned Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for several team members behind the show, including lead actress Kaley Cuoco. After two successful seasons, though, will the comedy-thriller take flight a third time, or is it permanently grounded?
While there’s no official word from HBO Max yet, the behind-the-scenes answer to that question has shifted over the past few months. Back in May, Cuoco suggested that she, at least, was done with “The Flight Attendant,” whether a third season happened or not.
“I’m like, ‘Well, we did two. We should probably be done.’ And I think I’ve been outnumbered with that thought,” she told People at the time. “There’s definitely interest in doing a third season. I think for me, at this moment, the plane has landed … I mean, we’ve done so much this season. Even in the eight episodes, we’ve done so much story that I’m thinking, ‘Well, what could we do next?’ So it’s going to take a lot of thought to make sure if we go back that it’s better than the last two, which is very hard to do.”
She did, however, leave the door open. “I think the writers and the team did a really beautiful job in tying it up in a pretty bow [at the end of season two],” she said. “But if you had to open the bow, it would be OK.”
Fast forward a few months, and the merger of Warner Bros. and Discovery has left the fates of many HBO Max shows, including “The Flight Attendant,” in limbo. Add to that a reported presentation to investors from the new Warner Bros. Discovery (via Business Insider), which seemed to suggest that HBO Max is seen within the company as “male-skewing,” prompting further concern over the future of the networks women-centric programming like “The Flight Attendant” under the company’s reported new vision.
Now, however, Cuoco has a different perspective, and she might have just revealed that a third season is in the works after all!
“I was at a dinner a couple of weeks ago sitting next to [executive producer] Greg Berlanti, and there were a lot of people there, so it was really hard to talk, but I whispered to him, and I’m like, ‘Third season?’ And he just nodded at me. I was like, ‘Wow.’ He didn’t even say anything. He nodded: Yup!” she revealed in an interview with Variety.
Cuoco does have other projects she’s working on, too, so that third season might take a little longer to come out. For her, that’s actually an ideal situation.
“I think season two was so heavy for me, that was a big part of it. And now having some separation. And again, we’d have to depend on what it would look like,” she told Variety. “I like when shows take a breath. This isn’t ‘The Big Bang Theory’ days — it’s different. So I want to be wanted, I don’t want to force this down people’s throats. I want the storyline to be perfect enough. And I know that producers and everyone feels the same. I’ve talked to a lot of the main cast, and they are up for it, too. So that’s a great sign. I could see it happening. But probably not anytime soon.”
Long story short: the future of “The Flight Attendant” is still up in the air, but Cuoco seems game for another flight!