Why Maggie Q Is Keeping Her Hopes in Check for ‘Ballard’ Season 2

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Ballard Season 1’s series finale]

Prime Video’s Ballard is a quirky outlier in the crime drama crowd. A spinoff of a spinoff, the crime thriller branches off from Bosch: Legacy, which itself originated from the original series Bosch. Both were highly successful streaming titles, yet both were ultimately canceled. Now, as Ballard launches forth and keeps the Bosch universe alive, the new series’ star Maggie Q is well aware of the unusual position she’s in.

The show follows Detective Renée Ballard as she takes charge of the LAPD’s newly formed cold case division. A veteran officer recently demoted and disgraced through no fault of her own, Ballard must confront past trauma while fighting to regain the trust of her department—and herself. Her fall from grace began when she reported being assaulted by Detective Robert Olivas (Ricardo Chavira). Instead of receiving support, she was removed from the Robbery-Homicide Division she had worked tirelessly to join.

Cast out by former colleagues and caught in a toxic game of “he said, she said,” Ballard was relegated to the basement-level cold case unit, where she now fights to prove she still belongs. With a ragtag crew of reserves and volunteers, she tackles long-forgotten cases, hoping to bring closure to victims and families who were left behind.

In the finale, the season ended on a cliffhanger: Olivas was found dead under unclear circumstances, and Ballard was hauled away by police as their top suspect. However, despite a strong setup for Season 2, critical acclaim, and solid word of mouth, Q remained hesitant about the show’s future.

“I have no sense. This industry is not what it was before. It’s barely recognizable to me, and shows are so expendable. They can throw out a show in two seconds, and it doesn’t make a ton of difference that whole worlds and livelihoods are at stake,” said Q to The Hollywood Reporter. “Studios always have options. But we have a writers room, and they’ve been writing away.”

Still, the Ballard star has high hopes for the next season, while remaining realistic when it comes to renewals.

“The arc for the second season is very exciting. But I’ve had [a] writers room hired before and then gotten canceled. So everyone’s like, ‘Maggie, of course!’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no.’ There is no ‘of course,'” said Q. “I am not a negative person at all. I’m a very positive person, but I’m a realist. They sent me reviews this morning, and I didn’t want to read them. I’m glad they’re positive, but I don’t want to read them.”

Whether or not she wishes to read them, the reviews are positive. Critics and fans of the Bosch franchise enjoy the expanded universe, especially with Q as the lead. But initially, Q didn’t want to top a series.

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“I was on a flight to New Zealand and was sent the first six or seven scripts,” Q told THR in a separate interview. “I said to my agents, ‘I will let you know when I land what I think.’ It was a 14-hour flight, and sadly, most things you read, you don’t like — if you’re discerning. So with no expectation, I dove in on the plane, and I remember immediately going, ‘I really like this. It’s a page turner.’”

“I honestly was not looking to lead a show again. It was not on my list — I was not looking for this. So it makes it even more special that it did find me, especially because it wasn’t something I was looking to do,” she says. “I totally understand what they’re trying to do with her and why her journey would matter to people; why they might want to follow this woman was very clear. And that doesn’t happen very often.”

Still waiting on whether or not they get a Season 2, Q is perfectly happy either way. But if she gets the call, she goes back to work sooner rather than later.

“If we get a Season 2 of Ballard, I think we’ll be back in the fall to shoot,” she said.

Ballard, Prime Video