Yahoo Lifestyle Stephen Merchant Says ‘The Outlaws’ Will Be Rested After Season 3
EXCLUSIVE: Stephen Merchant has revealed that The Outlaws Season 3 could be the comedy crime thriller’s swansong.
The creator of the BBC/Amazon hit said “never say never” on making more but “the problem at the moment is whenever I finish a project I feel a bit burned out and need to take some time away to regroup.”
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He said there are no plans to make more Outlaws as it currently stands and he is instead preparing for a stand-up comedy tour and working on developing film scripts, along with exec producing Greg Daniels’ upcoming The Office spin-off.
“I think this series concludes in a very nice way and hopefully might bring a tear to the eye, so if it does then that would be great,” Merchant told Deadline in the days leading up to Season 3 premiere. “I am so pleased it’s run this long. I’ve enjoyed the cast, filming in my hometown of Bristol and dropping into this genre. It ticks a lot of boxes for me in terms of what I wanted to do with it.”
Starring Christopher Walken, Eleanor Tomlinson, Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning and Merchant himself, The Outlaws follows the goings-on of a group of misfits ordered to do community service in Bristol, England, combining elements of comedy caper with crime thriller. Season 2 featured Bad Sisters star Claes Bang as crime boss The Dean and ended with the gang coming up with an ambitious plan to plant 10 kilograms of cocaine in his car. Big Talk Studios is producer and BBC Studios distributes internationally.
Pondering the show’s future, Merchant posited whether versions could be franchised in a similar vein to American hits like CSI, with potential to set these shows in places like LA or Manchester. Keeping The Outlaws running for multiple seasons in one place is tricky as “you have to wonder how long people do community service for,” Merchant joked, countering that “M*A*S*H “ran about five years longer than the Korean war, so we shall see.”
Merchant had never show-ran and starred in such a big endeavor before and said this partly explains why he is reticent to go further at this point in time. Seasons 2 and 3 were virtually shot back to back, while Season 1 was made during the pandemic under restrictions.
“I’ve done [showrunning] in the past on a smaller scale but as soon as you have a larger cast that is much harder to do as a director and actor,” added Merchant. “I definitely learned to collaborate more so it wasn’t all me. I like wearing lots of hats but have always been quite keen to collaborate.”
Season 3 begins with the discovery of a dead body and Merchant said he was always keen to drop this plot in as a “jumping off point.”
He said this season will see a slight tonal shift in that it will focus more on the individual characters and less on societal mores.
“There was a bit more social commentary earlier on whereas now I think that has given over more to the character stuff and we are trying to make sure each character has a fresh arc so we aren’t repeating ourselves,” he added. “Aside from that, the tone has remained fairly consistent. The mix of humor and crime thriller was slightly less familiar years ago.”
The Office co-creator Merchant, who has spent the past decade or so mainly working in LA, had been throwing ideas around for The Outlaws for years before the BBC and Amazon jumped aboard. He created The Outlaws in a somewhat odd-couple pairing with Mayans M.C. co-creator Elgin James, although James is no longer involved with the day to day. “Elgin was instrumental in helping me formulate the characters and world and since then I’ve run with the ball,” Merchant said. “By this point I might call him to speak about certain things but he doesn’t have time for me to get into the weeds with the plotting.”
Working with ‘Baby Reindeer’ star
Driving the success of The Outlaws Season 3 could be Gunning, who plays Community Payback Officer Diane. Gunning has seen her popularity explode in recent weeks with her critically-acclaimed turn as stalker Martha in Netflix smash Baby Reindeer.
For Season 3, she joined the episode five writers room and recently heaped praise on Merchant’s methods.
Merchant, in turn, said Gunning is “the only person who sent in an audition tape that was note perfect.”
“I didn’t have one change, she dialed into the character straight away,” he added. “She is such an amazing collaborator in the sense that she will hang around on set and contribute ideas in a constructive and helpful way.”
“My only fear now she is a superstar is that she won’t return my calls,” added Merchant, who said he has been “lucky enough” to work with a number of successful actors at the start of their careers, citing Martin Freeman in the UK Office and Florence Pugh, who led his 2019 wrestling pic Fighting with my Family.
Merchant hasn’t watched the controversial Baby Reindeer yet – “I’m going back to stand-up and anything that makes me more nervous for that is hard to watch” – but the auteur is cognizant of duty of care issues raised by TV drama. Two years ago, he played British serial killer Stephen Port – who murdered four young gay men a decade ago – in the BBC’s Four Lives.
“The responsibility there was to the real families affected by the crimes and as an actor you are aware of doing justice to the story and raising awareness,” he added. “It is hard to know how fictionalized Baby Reindeer is. But fiction always draws on real-life experiences, so it is a constant tightrope.”
Merchant is now relishing some time on the stand-up circuit away from the hustle and bustle of TV sets. “There is an immediacy to stand-up that I like, you can think of an idea in the morning and try it out that evening,” he said.
He is an EP on Greg Daniels’ The Office spin-off for Peacock starring Domhnall Gleeson and Sabrina Impacciatore, although hinted that he will likely not be involved much on set. Speaking to Deadline at the BAFTA TV Red Carpet last weekend, Merchant had suggested that the show will need to reflect modern working practices 20 years on from the original by incorporating Zoom culture, with employees maybe only coming in to work once or twice a week.
The spin-off reflects the current penchant in both the U.S. and UK for sitcoms. As the co-creator of one of the best-known sitcoms of all time, Merchant welcomed the trend, which has been talked up in recent weeks by BBC comedy boss Jon Petrie and the heads of Such Brave Girls producer Various Artists Limited.
Merchant urged networks to give this new era of sitcoms time to develop.
“Sitcoms need their breathing space to find an audience,” he explained. “All those shows we talk about that became part of the furniture like The Office or Seinfeld had some runway to gather an audience. The problem is whether streamers and networks will allow that time.”
The Outlaws launches on May 31. A London press screening is taking place this afternoon.
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