Kin creator opens up about possibility of Season 3 for the hit Irish crime drama

Co-creator Ciaran Donnelly told JOE: 'It breaks our hearts that there was only two seasons of it. It was really meant to be five.'

And yet, despite this, there have been conflicting reports regarding the show's future. While there have been news articles stating that Kin will "never return", one of its stars - Emmett J. Scanlan - said recently that there was “a lot of interest” in reviving the series.

This week, co-creator of the show Ciaran Donnelly is taking part in a Film Ireland and Screen Ireland-presented event titled 'Screen Sessions: Looking Forward with Creativity'.

Happening on Friday (13 December) in Dublin, the free live event will consist of an afternoon of in-depth conversations on craft, career and creativity with the artists and decision-makers working behind the scenes of the Irish film and TV industry.

Ahead of Screen Sessions, JOE had a wide-ranging conversation with Donnelly, also acclaimed for his directing work on high-profile TV shows like Altered Carbon, The Tudors, Vikings and The Wheel of Time.

And during the interview, we had to ask him the question on everybody's lips: Is Kin season three happening?

"Well, this is where I have to be careful," Donnelly replied, noting that it's a "very complex" situation.

"There is work going on to try and make a third season happen. Whether it will or not very much remains a question mark. It's not because nobody wants to do it," he added.

"This is public knowledge, there's no secret here. But the main financier of the show Bron Studios went bust.

"So initially… all the work I'd come up with, all that IP if you like, to get the thing financed - what you have to do is sign over your IP. Because the financier has to own it basically.

"They have to have the rights to it so that they can legitimately go and finance the thing. They can't finance something they don't own. So they went bust and the rights are tied up in the sale of assets.

"That's basically the problem. Otherwise I'm pretty sure there would be a third season happening right now, if it hadn't already happened."

Donnelly also said that as a consequence of this, the actors in Kin's contracts would need to be renegotiated if a season three was to happen.

"The actors remain under option for a certain amount of time after the end of a season for a show, " he explained.

"So for example, Aidan [Gillen] and Clare [Dunne] and Charlie [Cox] - the producers have maybe a year to sort of get the next season going under agreed terms. And then if it doesn't happen within that year, you don't have that agreement anymore.

"So you sort of have to say: 'Well, where are they in the world, where are they in their schedules,' and then everything has to be renegotiated."

Summing up, the co-creator said: "We know there's an enthusiasm from RTÉ. We know there's an enthusiasm from audiences. And it's a thing we'd all love to happen. But it's probably got a bit more to do with lawyers and things now."

JOE then asked Donnelly if he is hopeful the situation can be worked out.

In response, he said: "Yeah, we'd love it. The plan was always five seasons at least."

Donnelly added: "There's a lot of love for Kin, that's for sure and everywhere I go, people talk to me about it and ask me about it and ask me this question. And it's always a complex answer. It's not simple.

"[Co-creator Peter McKenna] and I were speaking quite recently about it and part of it is, while all that's going on, we also have to get on with our lives.

"He has to get on with his life as a writer and as a creative and I have to get on with my life as a writer and as a director and all that kind of stuff."

Donnelly also explained: "You need a green light for a third season. That means there needs to be a green light to write the season and start prepping the season. So, even if there was a green light now, it would still be, I can imagine, six to eight months, 10 months before we would go into production potentially.

"And then it has to go through post-production and then get out into the world. So best case scenario even with a green light now, you might be looking at the second half of next year before we hit the screens.

"But I agree with you and everyone says the same thing. I think there is a big audience for it. There's an enthusiasm for it. It was a good show. It was a really good show.

"So yeah, it sort of breaks our hearts that there was only two seasons of it. It was really meant to be five."

You can find more details on the Screen Sessions event in Dublin right here. You can also secure tickets at this link.

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