‘The Leftovers’ Series Finale Leaves ‘No Dangling Threads, No Spinoff Possibilities,’ Damon Lindelof Says
As “The Leftovers” approaches its final hour, the cast, creators, and crew reunited at Avalon Hollywood on Tuesday night to celebrate the show’s last season.
For fans of the HBO drama, showrunner and co-creator Damon Lindelof made it crystal clear that the closed-ended series finale leaves no possibility of return.
“This is it; we left no dangling threads, no to be continued, no spinoff possibilities. We made pretty sure that this was going to be the last season of the show,” Lindelof assured Variety on the carpet before the screening. “The audience deserves as satisfying an ending as we can give them. I don’t think anyone wants to see a question mark at the end of this.”
After leaving their New York home and later Texas, the Garvey family (and Nora Durst) head to Australia for the show’s third season, when it is predicted that the world will ultimately end seven years after 2% of the world population inexplicably disappeared.
“Moving to Australia really heightened the sense of spiritual searching. Our characters are really going to the end of the world to see if they can find some peace,” explained novelist and co-creator Tom Perrotta, who also noted that the aftermath of the Sudden Departure in the series could be applied to virtually any traumatic event – even the 2016 presidential election.
“When I started the book in 2009, I was thinking very specifically in my own mind about 9/11, but also the financial crisis,” he said. “9/11 divided the world into before and after, and I feel that this election did the same. Depending on where you lived, the days in November felt a little ‘Leftovers’-y; people were shocked and there was kind of a collective mood of grief. Some people haven’t emerged from that and some people are like, ‘What now?’ That’s part of what ‘The Leftovers’ is about. People responding to a selective trauma, but in different ways and timetables.”
While the series finale provoked many emotions for those involved, actress Carrie Coon said she left the show feeling very satisfied with the work she’d done.
“I think in a show like this, you can have a really explosive, shocking ending or you can have something that feels really truthful and I think that’s what we have,” she said. “I was so proud to be a part of it, and I’m a big part of it.”
After being apart from everyone for six months, star Justin Theroux said he’ll most miss the colleagues he worked with both in front and behind the camera.
“Now with the premiere, it’s really the finale, our finale,” he said to a group of reporters. “I think there’s even gonna be a small collection of us that get together on Sundays and watch. We will watch the finale together.”
Before the screening, both Lindelof and Perrotta recited a long list of thank yous to the entire team before guests watched the Season 3 premiere episode and dined buffet-style. Those who attended the celebration included stars Amy Brenneman, Jovan Adepo, Margaret Qualley, Kevin Carroll, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Chris Zylka (who came to the premiere with girlfriend Paris Hilton), and director/executive producer Mimi Leder. Other notable attendees included Jennifer Aniston (who came out to support her husband Theroux) and Reid Scott of HBO’s “Veep.”
The Season 3 premiere of “The Leftovers” airs April 16 on HBO.
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