More Mare of Easttown? What Show Creator Brad Ingelsby Told Us About a Season 2

Mare of Easttown fans seemingly can't wait for a second season of HBO's captivating crime series. In fact, they've been clamoring so badly for more of Kate Winslet as Mare that they're practically stalking the real-life house in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, that served as the exterior of her titular detective's home address, turning it into a bona fide tourist attraction—and prompting the area's actual cops to implore Mare fans to keep their distance.

The appeal of the series is clear, considering it racked up three awards at the 2021 Primetime Emmys, including one for Winslet for Best Actress in a Limited Series or movie. (Julianne Nicholson also won for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series and Evan Peters won for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.) Winslet reminded herself to breathe during her emotional acceptance speech.

"I just want to acknowledge my fellow nominees in this decade that has to be about women having each other's backs. I support you. I salute you; I am proud of all of you," Winslet said during the Emmy ceremony on CBS. "Mare of Easttown... it was this cultural moment, and it brought people together and gave them something to talk about other than a global pandemic." She then thanked series creator Brad Ingelsby, applauding him for creating "a middle-aged, imperfect, flawed mother and made us all feel validated."

Speaking of Ingelsby, Parade.com went straight to the source to ask him what he thinks about revisiting the greater Delco area on the small screen. Here's everything we know about Season 2 of Mare of Easttown, including Ingelsby's thoughts on renewing the acclaimed series.

Will there be a Mare of Easttown Season 2?

Mare of Easttown has not officially been renewed for Season 2, but Ingelsby exclusively tells Parade.com that he would love to revisit the series—and that the possibility of finding a new story to tell with Winslet back in the title role is definitely doable.

“Mare is a detective, so you always have that access point; there’s always a case,” explains Ingelsby, best known for his movies The Way Back (starring Ben Affleck) and American Woman (starring Sienna Miller). “So, that doesn’t feel like a stretch, and it certainly opens the door to another show. You have her job that could easily allow another case.  Now what that case is, how it’s exciting, and how you can have a compelling mystery that involves people in the town; I just don’t know what this is right now.”

He adds, "I would love nothing more than to write Mare, Helen, Siobhan, and Lori again. But I also want to make sure that if I ever went down that road, that we had a story we were confident was really good and really emotional, and I haven’t come up with that story yet. I feel like Season 1 was such a personal, emotional journey into Mare’s life, so it comes down to what could we give Mare to deal with personally that doesn’t feel like we’re repeating the same issues she dealt with in the first season. I just don’t know when it would be, but never say never!"

For Ingelsby, an attractive perk of a Mare renewal would be getting the chance to reunite with Winslet, who was his first choice to play the show's title character. In his interview with Parade.com, Ingelsby praised Winslet for setting the tone of the entire production by “being so lovely and kind. With someone like that at the top; it definitely trickles down.”

In the meantime, Ingelsby also has a three-year production deal with HBO to create additional TV material, and he is still figuring out his next project. “We are in talks about a couple of things, and hopefully soon we will find something that we feel passionate about," he says.

Since Parade's interview with Ingelsby, there's been relatively little movement on Season 2. In March 2024, Winslet was asked about a second season and said, “At the moment, hand on heart, I have not had an active conversation with anyone at HBO about a possible season two for quite a while. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. But it does definitely mean I’m not lying. Like, it hasn’t come up.”

So Season 2 of Mare and her vape may still be coming, but most likely not for several years as both Ingelsby and Winslet work on other projects. 

Who is Mare Sheehan in Mare of Easttown?

Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) is a police detective in a small-town Pennsylvania who investigates a brutal murder as she tries to keep her life from falling apart as she deals with great personal and career angst. She is the divorced mother of a teenage daughter (Angourie Rice) who lives next door to her ex-husband (David Denning) and his fiancé (Kate Arrington), while at the same time grieving her late son and caring for her grandson.

Related: We Need to Talk About Kate Winslet’s Delco Accent in Mare of Easttown

When did Mare of Easttown premiere?

Mare of Easttown's Season 1 premiere aired on April 18, 2021. Unlike many new shows these days, Mare kept to an old-fashioned rollout schedule, dropping just one new episode of the series every week.

Related: There Goes the Bike! The End of the Latest Mare of Easttown Episode Introduced a Surprising Suspect 

How many episodes in Mare of Easttown?

Mare of Easttown's first season featured 7 episodes.

Who’s in the cast of Mare of Easttown?

Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan

The Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy-winning British actress became a breakout film star with her leading role in Titanic opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Her subsequent project includes movies The Reader, Revolutionary Road, The Holiday, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, —plus, she previously starred in another highly acclaimed HBO miniseries, Mildred Pierce. A devoted mom of three, Winslet had just finished the period drama Ammonite when Ingelsby sent her the Mare of Easttown screenplay and asked her to play the leading role, which she says appealed to her because she was looking to take on a part that would challenge her and take her on a unique journey. She recently won the Best Actress Emmy in a Limited Series or Movie for Mare of Easttown; her second Emmy win. The first was for Mildred Pierce.

Jean Smart as Helen Fahey

Seattle native Jean Smart got her start in 1975 performing in regional theater throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 1985, she was cast in the co-starring role of Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the comedy series Designing Women, a role she played for five seasons. She is also known for her role on the hit TV series Frasier (opposite Kelsey Grammer) as Lana Gardner, an old high school classmate that both Frasier and Niles had crushes on during high school. For her work on Frasier, she won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, calling that sitcom “hilarious and brilliant.”

Smart is a prolific television actress who has also been seen in Harry’s Law, Fargo, Watchmen, and films including The Accountant, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and The Brady Bunch Movie. Most recently, she was nominated for a best-supporting actress Emmy for Mare of Easttown. While Smart did not win an Emmy for her role as Winslet's mother in  Mare of Easttown, she won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in the critically lauded HBO series, Hacks.

Guy Pearce as Richard Ryan

Guy Pearce started his career with a four-year stint as Mike Young on the popular Aussie soap Neighbours in the mid-80s. After his first film at age 20, Pearce won the role of an outrageous drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994. His other memorable film roles include L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, and Mildred Pierce, opposite longtime pal Winslet.

Evan Peters as Detective Colin Zabel

Born and raised in the St. Louis suburbs, Evan Peters is best known for his multiple roles on the FX anthology series American Horror Story, as Stan Bowes in the first season of the FX ballroom drama series Pose, and as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver in the X-Men film series. Peters made his acting debut in the 2004 drama Clipping Adam, and starred in the ABC science fiction series Invasion from 2005 to 2006.

In 2021, though, Peters achieved a new level of breakout success. Not only was he nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of Detective Colin Zabel on Mare, but he also brought back his X-Men character for a surprise stint on the megahit Marvel series WandaVision on Disney+.

Peters recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie in Mare of Easttown.

Julianne Nicholson as Lori Ross

Julianne Nicholson is best known for her main and supporting roles in multiple indie and dramatic films and TV series. The former model played NYPD Detective Megan Wheeler on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and has had memorable roles in Ally McBeal, Boardwalk Empire, The Outsider, and Masters of Sex. he also portrayed Ivy in the film adaptation of August: Osage County opposite Meryl Streep. In 2016, Nicholson played the lead role of Sheriff Helen Torrance in USA Network’s 10-episode police drama Eyewitness.