Here’s When (or if) You’ll See 13 TV Anthologies Again
American Crime Story
After telling the stories of O.J. Simpson and Gianni Versace on this FX anthology, producer Ryan Murphy toyed with the idea of focusing seasons on Hurricane Katrina and Monica Lewinsky, but no one knows when or if those stories will come to fruition. “We have three or four ideas in active development where we’ve acquired rights and done a fair amount of research and have writers working on them,” FX CEO John Landgraf said at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour. “I couldn’t tell you what will be ready first. The likelihood is all of them may be produced over time.”
American Horror Story
This hit horror show has been renewed through Season 10, but Murphy has offered few details about the subject matter of the next two seasons. We do know, however, that Emma Roberts will return for Season 9 and that Olympic skier Gus Kenworthy will play her boyfriend.
Black Mirror
In December, almost a year to the day after streaming the fourth season of this sci-fi anthology, Netflix released the (divisive) interactive standalone installment Bandersnatch. Season 5 is expected to premiere sometime this year, but a release date has not yet been announced.
Channel Zero
Syfy canceled the horror anthology in January after four seasons. “I’m deeply grateful for this experience,” creator Nick Antosca wrote on Instagram. “Especially to everybody who watched and talked about and wrote about the show. There are stories we didn’t get to tell and creatures you didn’t get to see, but still might.”
Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams
This 10-episode British-American co-production started streaming on Amazon in 2018, with actors like Bryan Cranston, Janelle Monáe, Vera Farmiga, and Maura Tierney bringing the sci-fi stories of Philip K. Dick to life. That March, representatives for the UK’s Channel 4 could neither confirm nor deny plans for any future episodes.
Genius
Nat Geo scored a critical win with this anthology, both seasons of which have earned Emmy nominations, including nods for Albert Einstein portrayer Geoffrey Rush and Picasso portrayer Antonio Banderas. The show was renewed in April, and Season 3 will either focus on Frankenstein author Mary Shelley or soul singer Aretha Franklin, according to reports.
Fargo
This crime drama, based on the 1996 Coen Brothers film of the same name, hasn’t aired a new episode since 2017 and might not do so until 2020 at this rate. Nevertheless, Landgraf said creator Noah Hawley is working on Season 4. “I’ve read the first script,” he told reporters. “It’s fantastic. I absolutely loved it.”
Feud
Murphy scrapped the idea of covering the discord between Prince Charles and Princess Diana in the second season of this FX show — after reportedly casting Matthew Goode and Rosamund Pike in the roles — but is now back to the drawing boards. “We did [have it cast] but we decided we didn’t feel we had the material right and decided not to move forward with it,” Landgraf previously told The Hollywood Reporter.
Into the Dark
This holiday-centric Hulu horror anthology, which releases episodes every month or so, has an Ides of March-themed installment, “Treehouse,” coming on March 1, followed by an April Fools’-themed episode, “I’m Just F—king With You,” on April 5.
Law & Order: True Crime
After Season 1 netted middling ratings — despite Edie Falco’s Emmy-nominated performance as the Menendez Brothers’ defense attorney, Leslie Abramson — NBC put the show on the back burner for the 2018-2019 season but didn’t cancel it.
Lore
Amazon hasn’t yet announced a third season for this horror anthology based on the podcast of the same name. Then again, Season 2 wasn’t announced until this time last year, so fans shouldn’t give up hope.
The Romanoffs
Similarly, Amazon hasn’t announced a second season for this anthology from Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner. The show features a star-studded cast — the likes of Christina Hendricks, Aaron Eckhart, John Slattery, and Diane Lane — playing characters who believe they have Russian royalty in their blood.
Room 104
This HBO anthology, each episode of which follows different characters occupying the same hotel room, is almost certainly coming back. Co-creator Mark Duplass said that Season 3 is already finished and that he’s currently working on the fourth season.
The beauty of TV anthologies is that they rarely get played out, with new stories coming every season and sometimes every episode.
The downside of TV anthologies is that the masterminds behind the scenes are in no particular rush to release each chapter: These shows are usually not beholden to the typical TV season.
We just learned we might be waiting a while for the next installments of American Crime Story and Feud, for example, so we figured we’d offer status updates on those shows and 11 more here. Click through the gallery above.
