Showtime’s spooky Victorian drama Penny Dreadful had its season finale last night. Unbeknownst to fans, that was the series finale as well. “I can absolutely confirm it is really over, the end — that’s all she wrote,” creator John Logan announced; elsewhere, he noted that a three-season run was his intention from the beginning.
The finale ended with the death of the main character, Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives, her funeral, and then the words “The End” dramatically appearing on the screen. In an interview with Deadline, Logan said a return to Penny Dreadful in any form seemed unlikely: “I think this is the right ending so for me to revisit that world again would seem inorganic, I think.”
As for why he didn’t give fans a heads-up about his very deliberate decision to end the series after season three, Logan says:
That’s what the ending of this series is, it is meant to be a strong, bold, theatrical ending because I think that’s what our fans like and to water that down with an announcement or having them know I think would be an act of bad faith.
This doesn’t necessarily mean there won’t be a spin-off down the line, at least according to a hopeful Showtime president David Nevins. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Nevins said “anything is possible at any time.” As for Logan, he cagily allowed he’d be “willing to engage the conversation” a few years down the line—remember, Showtime is the network that’s bringing back Twin Peaks, which in the world of TV really is proof that anything is possible.