Prime Video’s Countdown has handed the midway level of its first season within the 2025 TV schedule, and the motion actually is not slowing down for Jensen Ackles’ Mark Meachum. The present appears to be producing loads of buzz, and Ackles has actually confirmed himself as a number one man who can carry a challenge for a number of seasons. (See: a decade and a half of Supernatural with Jared Padalecki.) Season 2 has but to be assured, nonetheless, and I recall what creator/showrunner/government producer Derek Haas shared with CinemaBlend about writing Season 1 and waiting for the long run.
Haas got here to Countdown with loads of expertise on long-running exhibits as nicely, as he was the showrunner on NBC’s Chicago Hearth for greater than a decade, and the arduous work that he (and Jensen Ackles) put in for stunts in reality displays a few of his feedback about Hearth usually getting snubbed for stunts on the awards circuit. After I spoke with Haas for Countdown throughout Prime Video’s press day, I needed to ask: what advantages have been there for him to have written all ten episodes of Countdown himself as a substitute of sharing that load? He shared:
I might by no means carried out that earlier than on a TV present. I used to put in writing novels, and this present virtually lent itself to being like chapters in a e book, of a novel. So I simply wished to attempt to do it that manner and see what would occur. And so it was virtually like a problem, however it was actually enjoyable to do it. I felt very near it all through, after which I obtained to rent this superb forged to carry it to life, as a result of it truly is simply phrases on a web page till it will get three-dimensional, when you get this embarrassment of riches of a forged that I set to work with.
The forged who offered Derek Haas along with his “embarrassment of riches” is made up of Jessica Camacho as DEA Agent Amber Oliveras, The Flash‘s Violett Beane as FBI Agent Evan Shepard, Elliot Knight as FBI Agent Keyonte Bell, Uli Latukefu as LAPD Detective Luke Finau, and Gray’s Anatomy‘s Eric Dane as FBI SAC Nathan Blythe along with Jensen Ackles as LAPD Detective Mark Meachum. (This Is Us vet Milo Ventimiglia was very briefly a part of the forged.)
Writing a full ten episodes is unquestionably a variety of work for a brand new TV present irrespective of how gifted the forged is and/or how skilled the showrunner is, nonetheless. So, I requested Haas if he would need to write the entire scripts himself once more if Countdown is renewed for Season 2. He responded:
Oh, that is an incredible query. Truthfully, I have not thought previous getting this primary one launched. I actually loved doing it, however I additionally cherished working with writing groups, which I might carried out many instances prior to now. In order that’s an incredible query for the long run. Ask me once more in a 12 months.
Properly, it is technically solely been about six weeks since I spoke with Derek Haas about Countdown Season 2 and obtained the suggestion to ask him once more in a 12 months, however can I be blamed for having excessive hopes for information of a second season coming sooner reasonably than later? Eight of the primary season’s ten episodes have launched thus far, to a good quantity of buzz. Jensen Ackles even used his put up confirming a return to Tracker to hype the newest episode.
For now, hold trying out new episodes of Countdown on Wednesdays with a Prime Video subscription. On the very least, including to the view rely for the collection cannot harm its renewal probabilities, and I for one would love the aid of an official order for Season 2 coming earlier than the Season 1 finale. Most ideally, that Season 2 would not take for much longer than the 12 months that Derek Haas talked about!