Season 4? Or is it over after this? Wisteria/Unrecorded Night? Something else? (Speculation thread.)

[Histeria]

I get the feeling Lynch and Frost may sell the IP upon bowing out of making it. They've been consolidating everything and if they do make another season or two it'll take the series close to the 80ish episode mark, which is a lot more valuable than 50, which was a lot more valuable than 29.

I see it feasible that ViacomCBS eventually buy the IP for a hefty sum to go alongside their merch and distribution rights. Maybe with conditions like a significant time delay or the format of any future shows based on Twin Peaks (whether it's a reboot or continuation). The alternative endgame would be to just sit on it? Fair enough, I guess.

I actually did have a dream recently where Paramount Plus got Lynch and Frost's blessing to make a long-running soap opera set in Twin Peaks while the two creators continued making the "main" narrative series focused on Laura, Cooper et al. Which would be ironic given how some feel the plan was to use that storyline to ease viewers into a soap chronicling the rest of the townsfolk.

[AXX°N N.]

I would hope it's still possible for someone to want to retain creative control even when the difference is profit.

[Histeria]

I don't think they'd yield creative control while they're still capable of wielding it. But at some point a decision will be made on its status beyond that.

[DougieJones]

It’s funny going back to the P18 thread in 2017 and people saying that a Season 4 announcement was gonna arrive. It took Lynch/Frost about four and a half years to write S3. I feel as though if there really was going to be a fourth season it would be announced this year.

[Stavrogyn]

I don't think they'd yield creative control while they're still capable of wielding it. But at some point a decision will be made on its status beyond that.

If I were both financially situated and cared about my artistic legacy, I would never sell an IP I care about and people associate my name with. I don't know how these things work, but I would rather take it to my grave and make sure no one ever makes anything with it than sell it or yield it. And I suspect that Lynch cares very deeply about his legacy. I don't know about Frost, but I wouldn't be surprised if he cared very much about this particular IP too.

[enumbs]

I primarily perceive Lynch as an artist, in the broadest sense of the word, and not strictly filmmaker, and I believe that he sees The Return as his work of art, so I think that there is no way that he would let anyone else direct Twin Peaks ever again. Imagine if someone else wanted to write the planned sequel to The Brothers Karamazov, and Dostoevsky said: "Yeah, you do it, I'm fine with that."

This is a great analogy. Lynch has joked that he would shoot anyone who tried to remake Eraserhead, and expressed dissatisfaction with how other creative voices were involved with the originals run of Twin Peaks. I suppose there is a possibility he might work with other writers (probably in a manner close to his relationship with Engels than with Frost), but I am convinced he will never relinquish control to another director or creative team.

[JackwithOneEye]

the heirs of their estates are gonna want money down the road, so I would expect a push from some executive for a clean slate TP reboot in the 2040's or 2050's or something, or sequel maybe. I dunno, I would think the Laura Palmer mystery is something whoever is considered an A lister in twenty or thirty years might want to re-tell. I guess it depends how legally binding they can make their wills. I know Orson Welles did word an agreement with RKO in such a way that made Citizen Kane untouchable for the colorization craze etc.

I'd prefer no continuation under other folks. I'm not too bothered not knowing the fate of the sawmill or whatever. It might seem odd at this point, it's not quite a property like Dr Who or Star Trek you can keep continuing the mythology under future generations, so much of it is the specific vision of Lynch. After all the deconstructive angles of the Return, to return to old early 90's soap threads, I dunno how well that could work.

I don't like that twinperfect whatever guy's video, but there's a lot in the Return that admits to it being a fiction, the movie theater with the events unfolding on the screen, the director of it having a dream he living in a dream at a cafe his real life counterpart has been to in Paris, and meeting with an actual actress who performs fiction. Seems awkward to tamper with all of the things Lynch wants us to think about it, and kick out the table legs, and have other people continue it. unless whoever continued it, continued with the deconstructive themes the Return sets up, but then that might just come off like fan fiction.

[Brad D]

It's so funny to me how territorial and possessive and critical Lynch is towards other people's input on Twin Peaks, esp with season 2, and esp when he had more to do with it than he would ever like to admit (or remember). It's a very selective buffet.

TP began as a TV show where the literal plan was to create a series, get it going, and let other writers and directors do the lion share of the work. For me, it kept everything fresh until when it was time for Lynch to come in, shake it all up, and then come back down the road. Some dont like to admit this, but other people outside of Lynch and Frost did some pretty amazing work on the page and behind the camera before.

I dont see the crime in having other people do their takes on Twin Peaks, especially (hot take coming in, brace yourselves) when it seemed like Lynch really didn't want to do Twin Peaks proper again in the first place. It's strictly my opinion that most TV viewers dont care if a particular episode is directed by whomever. I honestly dont pay attention in 90% of the series I currently watch. What I'm getting at, is I think its pretty unlikely, but pretty appetizing if Lynch and Frost sold off the property and TP continued in a way Fargo has. The moods, motifs, and universe are at play, but the characters and the stories are all different each season.

The question is, would anyone offer up enough money to Lynch and Frost where they would hand it off like George Lucas did Star Wars? As Ted DiBiase said, "Everyone has a price." But I'm not so sure anyone is willing to pay it. I feel like TP had its populist appeal sucked out of the franchise with The Return, and that may have been the end goal of the creators. Who knows. I still say s4 is likely never happening, at least with Lynch and Frost doing it.

[DougieJones]

An anthology type series like Fargo but with each season having a different Blue Rose case would be amazing. However I still want to see Coop and Laura. Brad you’re very on point with your assessment of S2 and writers like Harley Peyton offered great contributions to the series. I think sadly because of what the public perceives about S2 made Lynch take a hard line about it.

I still have hope for a S4. Coop and Laura are still out there somewhere. For what it’s worth when I heard about S4 a while back I spoke with someone who knew a crew member on The Return. I was told they’re working on it but I hope the pandemic hasn’t changed anything.

[enumbs]

I think Lynch loved the idea of a continuing story but was entirely ill-equipped to deal with the realities of how 90s network television operated. An artist used to focussing on minute details such as dust-mites in the background of a scene was never going to be a great at breaking a story and then delegating to other writers and directors. The whole idea of creating a world and then passing the baton is totally anathema to his sensibility, and he either had to be all in or basically checked out - cryptic plot suggestions and certain casting choices excepted. Perhaps he was totally naive about the number of episodes he could direct and the level of control he could have over the production, or maybe reality didn’t set in until the wheels were already in motion. Either way, I can’t see a similar situation happening again. Room to Dream makes it clear that Lynch doesn’t even like most of his own work on the show past the Pilot, so any future project will probably need to be made in the same manner as his films (just as the Pilot and the Return mostly were).

[DougieJones]

All I have is a map of Tibet and deductive technique.

Seriously though, sorry if people don't want their expectations to burn up. I understand. I've heard good things is what I'll repeat.

But we've been clued in recently have we not? Frost wants more. Sabrina wants more. Lynch told us the writing would take time but there are disturbance$.

I don't have anything specific right now like I did when I announced TP would return on the Showtime network three days before the official announcement. But If I hear anything this time around, this will be the place I'll post since I'm tired of social media.

We all want S4. Even the haters. I think they're looking forward to it the most

From 2018 lol

Edit: Saw this from 2018 on here also

Lynch told an actor who didn't have much screen time to not worry, he'll have more next season. So, unless he was simply placating him, it's nice to know it's at least or was on his radar.

The gang seems keen but I have to wonder if Showtime is willing to throw as much money into the pot this time around. I think anything could happen and Lynch has the ultimate freedom. If an agreement can't be made then at least Lynch/Frost got on full season under their belt done the way they wanted it done.

[enumbs]

I wonder how much Lynch would even distinguish between the quality of say, episode 6 and episode 20. He’s acknowledged that season 2 became “ridiculous” but I suspect that he’s more bothered by seeing “his” characters doing and saying things he didn’t write or direct than by any fluctuations in quality. Maybe an acclaimed multiple series run would have been a worse fate for him, in that he would have had to let the show progress in this collaborative way he found so difficult.

[JackwithOneEye]

I would agree the intent in 1989-1991 was to make a slightly quirky, but Peyton Place conventional mainstream type series in collaboration with other writers and directors coming in to continue the threads. In that regard, it was like Dr Who or Star Trek, or any soap with a giant story arc, but the Return is so much more of an auteur personal work and seems more aligned with Inland Empire and his own abstract paintings than the ABC show. It comes off as a Lynch specific rumination on art, performance, fiction, filmmaking, the subconcious, and I dunno how well a Fargo anthology show could work exactly at this point.

I do like Fargo a lot tho, and how they picked up on the suitcase with the money etc. Maybe something like that could work. But I dunno, Twin Peaks Return has a lot of open ended questions phrased directly as questions - "is this the story of the little girl who lives down the lane ?" or "who is the dreamer ?" could just be left best unsaid.

It could come off like that sequel to Gone with the Wind, Scarlett, or something.

[Agent Earle]

I agree with everything Brad said 100%! Especially after having witnessed The Return. Maybe I'd not be against TP being a full-on Lynch project it this were Lynch of the late 80s/early 90s, though...

[Agent Earle]

I should add this as well: yeah, Lynch may not have been "equipped" to do long-term serial storytelling in the 90s, as someone said. That still doesn't give him the right to retrospectivelly diss the work other people put in (a lot of it just because he wasn't around as he'd have to be considering he was what later became known as a "showrunner"). Furthermore, doing it in the moment when he had the new show coming out and perhaps felt the need to boost it a bit seems like an especially dickish move on his part. I dunno, I know there are people here who'd follow him into the fire but that whole business left an extremely bad taste in my mouth and has soured my TP fandom considerably. I mean, say "this and this was bad about that and that aspect of the show" or "if I were given a chance, I'd do it differently today", sure. But to practically call the whole friggin' season a piece of shit (and act like you had nothing to do with the fact that it came out the way that it did)?! C'mon, man, have some perspective, huh?..