Audience Network Orders Second Season of ‘Mr. Mercedes’

AT&T’s Audience Network has renewed its series Mr. Mercedes, which is based on a Stephen King novel, for a second season.

Production for the 10 one-hour episodes starts in February in Charleston, S.C. The season will kick off later in 2018.

Sonar Entertainment produces the show.

Returning for the second season are David E. Kelley to write the script and Jack Bender to direct. King, Kelley and Bender will also continue to be executive producers, along with Dennis Lehane, who will also write. The second season will be based on King’s best-selling Bill Hodges Trilogy, which includes Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers and End of Watch.

Brendan Gleeson and Harry Treadaway are in the cast.

“We’re thrilled that the first installment of Mr. Mercedes resonated with such a wide audience,” said Christopher Long, head of AT&T Audience Network. “David E. Kelley, Jack Bender, Dennis Lehane and Sonar did a masterful job crafting a series that honored the original work by Stephen King. We’re excited to have the opportunity to create a second season with this incredible team.”

Mr. Mercedes was published by Scribner in 2014. Shortly after the release of the novel, King said it was the first book in a trilogy. The second novel, Finders Keepers, was published by Scribner in 2015, and the third, End of Watch, was published in 2016. 

“I’m excited and thrilled,” said Kelley. “Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Jack Bender, Brendan Gleeson… This is a special team indeed.”

Season 1 followed a demented killer, played by Treadaway, who taunts a retired police detective, played by Gleeson, with a series of lurid letters, forcing the ex-cop to undertake a private, and potentially felonious, crusade to bring the killer to justice.

Audience Network is available on DirecTV and U-verse.

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Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.