What To Know
- Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has revealed he’s working on a third season.
- The original cast is interested in returning, including Lee Pace, who talked to TV Insider about the potential revival.
- The show originally ran for two seasons, from 2007 to 2009.
If Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller has his way, Ned (Lee Pace) and Chuck’s (Anna Friel) love story will get a second life. Over 16 years after the show’s cancellation, Fuller has revealed that he’s working on a third season.
“Well, we’re working on a Season 3, and the whole cast wants to come back,” he told The Mary Sue on December 1. “And, we’ve got a whole story. We’re trying to do another season this year.”
Fuller’s update also comes a few months after Pace told TV Insider that he was more than willing to step back into the shoes of Ned the Piemaker, though, at that point, he didn’t have much to share about the then-hypothetical reboot. “I haven’t heard anything definite,” the actor said. “I love those people. I love Bryan, so I love that character. We’ll see.”
Pushing Daisies’ whimsical two seasons revolved around Ned, a man who can bring the dead back to life through his touch. He’s a piemaker by trade, but on the side, he uses his power to help an investigator solve murders. When he revives his childhood sweetheart, Chuck, his life gets even more complicated. They fall for each other again, but if they touch, Chuck will die for good.
When we asked whether Pace had thought about where the story would’ve gone after Season 2, Pace confirmed that Fuller already had that covered. “Bryan Fuller is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met, and he’s told me where he sees it going,” the actor explained. “I obviously can’t say that here, but it’s so fun and so wild. And then, the story between Ned and Chuck is such an interesting love affair.”
Pace also reflected on why the series has resonated with viewers ever since it aired on ABC from 2007 to 2009. “Sometimes magic just happens in that way,” he said. “The cast seems to be right and has a chemistry, which we did. We adored each other and worked really hard on that show, and so I think that’s part of it. I think the writing was so unique, and there was a real current of love inside the show, which I think has drawn people to it.”
Pace continued, “It was original. I hadn’t seen anything like it when I did it. And there was such a freedom to make something that no one had not been touched on before in that way.”
The show’s uniqueness is part of the reason Fuller believes it might’ve lived on if it had been made a decade later. “Now what we’re celebrating in television is the identity of niche as a demographic that can be explored in different stories. That would have been a more fertile soil for Pushing Daisies to grow in,” he told Vanity Fair on the show’s tenth anniversary.
Even then, Fuller was open about bringing back Pushing Daisies, whether it be in the form of a musical or a “mini-series for Netflix, Apple, or Amazon, or whoever would pick it up.” He added, “I ask Warner Bros. every year to see if they’d be open to it. There are some obstacles there as far as revitalizing it as a television show, but like I said, I’d love to see it as a Broadway musical.”
A few years later, Fuller and the cast reunited for a Pushing Daisies rewatch in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which he revealed a storyline for a potential third season. “The morgue attendant was in love with Emerson Cod, which would have been further explored had the show continued,” he wrote on X.
There’s no news yet about which network has picked up Pushing Daisies Season 3, and Fuller also hasn’t officially confirmed what direction he’s taking the story. Do you have any theories? Let us know what you want to see in the comments below!
Pushing Daisies, Seasons 1-2, Streaming Now, HBO Max