Timeless fans will get closure. NBC has ordered a two-part series finale of the Sony Pictures TV-produced time-travel series to air during the holidays.
“While we wish we could’ve made another dozen seasons of Timeless, this is the next best thing,” said Timeless creators/executive producers Shawn Ryan and Eric Kripke said. “We’re thrilled to take the Lifeboat out for one last spin and bring closure to our story. The studio, network, cast and crew are all doing this for one reason only: the fans. Because they deserve it. Because the fans made this happen and we thank them for their passion, support and helicopters. So? You guys want to get Rufus back or what?”
SPOILER ALERT. In the Season 2 ender, soldier Wyatt (Matt Lanter) and historian Lucy (Abigail Spencer) return from their latest mission without their trusted engineer Rufus (Malcolm Barrett), who was killed. But in a last-second twist, an upgraded Lifeboat shows up with future versions of Wyatt and Lucy emerging to ask, “You guys want to get Rufus back or what?”
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Timeless was canceled by NBC for the second time last month though the network and Sony TV continued to discuss doing a two-hour movie that would resolve the cliffhanger in the Season 2 finale and wrap the stories on the show.
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The studio already had tried shoppingTimeless to other potential buyers ahead of the series’ official cancellation by NBC. Those efforts were unsuccessful, with Kripke telling fans on Twitter that “I think this 2 hour movie is our best shot. We’re ready to make it if @nbc really wants it,” and Ryan cautioning that “there are considerable economic obstacles that make it an uncertainty.”
While making the economics work was difficult, NBC remained interested in a finale special. Doing movie finales is very expensive as it involves ramping up production and reassembling a team with little financial upside for the series’ network or studio. The economics are especially challenging on broadcast TV; the only series that has done it in the past decade or so was CBS’ CSI, which already had made a ton of money, spawning a billion-dollar franchise for sibling CBS TV Studios. On SVOD, Netflix recently did it with its cult sci-fi drama series Sense8. Doing the finale as a two-parter could slightly ease the burden.
“We’re excited to tell one final chapter to this incredible story,” said Lisa Katz, Co-President, Scripted Programming,
NBC Entertainment. “A huge thank you to all – our cast, crew, producers and partners at Sony – who have worked so very hard, and to the fans who kept us on our toes and made sure we did our very best week after week.”
Created, written and executive produced by Kripke & Ryan, Timeless launched with a mysterious criminal stealing a secret state-of-the-art time machine, intent on destroying America as we know it by changing the past. It then was up to a soldier (Matt Lanter), a history professor (Abigail Spencer) and a scientist (Malcolm Barrett) to use the machine’s prototype to travel back in time to critical events. Goran Visnjic, Paterson Joseph, Sakina Jaffrey and Claudia Doumit co-star.
Tom Smuts and Arika Lisanne Mittman are co-showrunners and executive producers. Don Kurt, Greg Beeman, John Davis, John Fox and Marney Hochman also executive produce.
Timeless is a production of Sony Pictures Television, Davis Entertainment, MiddKid Productions and Kripke Enterprises.