While it is water under the bridge now considering that the American psychological thriller drama TV series “The Following” has already been cancelled by Fox after it aired its Season 3 finale on May 18, 2015, it is still worth noting that the show would have had its fourth but biggest serial killer villain had it been greenlit for Season 4.
The disclosure came from executive producer Alexi Hawley when he revealed moths after it was all over and done with for “The Following” that the writing team for the TV series had already come to the common point of crafting a big bad that was bigger than Joe Caroll, played by James Purefoy in Season 1, or Strauss, played by Gregg Henry in Season 2, or Theo, played by Michael Ealy in Season 3.
The serial killer shall also be someone who does not belong to the poor or middle class but from a well-to-do family.
Grand plans going up in smoke
Hawley said that the writing team was already fascinated then with the idea of an evil force that is very wealthy, notes the Vine Report.
Unfortunately for Hawley and the show’s writing team, all their grand plans for “The Following” went up in smoke after Fox decided not to renew the show for a fourth season because of already dwindling ratings.
Sources in the network are saying back then that they do not see “The Following” picking up the slack in its ratings despite Kevin Bacon and a supposed new plotline or even new villain since it was actually the mind games between Kevin Bacon’s Ryan Hardy and James Purefoy’s Joe Carroll that got the show to a blazing start.
When Hardy put an end to Caroll in the TV series, it also closed the storyline well and good since the subsequent seasons were merely from a tired old formula that viewers have already seen time and again in the movies and also on the small screen, points out Breathecast.
Both busy actors
It is not just Kevin Bacon, the lead actor of “The Following,” who got busy even after the show was canceled by Fox for Season 4 in May of last year. It was also the same path taken on by British actor James Purefoy.
Purefoy only appeared during the first two seasons of “The Following” and was no longer there during the third season, where the ratings significantly dropped, prompting fans and critics to assume that the tandem of Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy is what make the show clicked in the first place.
The British actor is a veteran of very good and top-rating TV shows including the epic sword-and-sandals TV series “Rome,” which many described as the prelude to the now very popular “Game of Thrones.”
“Rome,” created by Bruno Heller, was an expensive, complex and advanced TV show that is way ahead of its time. It was a show that lent itself to encores and binge-watches by pitting larger-than-life historical icons against rowdy commoners and pushed sex into almost every exposition scene.
Purefoy’s performance in “Rome” was so wonderful that he was actually considered for a role in “Game of Thrones” which he rejected because he was still busy with “The Following.”
When “The Following” was canceled last year, Purefoy has started entertaining offers from other TV shows. He is now the lead star of the TV series “Hap and Leonard” and the small screen reboot of the racial discrimination story “Roots.”
The aftermath of the cancellation of “The Following” for Season 4 was not really a downer for James Purefoy because he got so busy and his career flourished all the more, similar to the path taken on by fellow lead star Kevin Bacon.