Welcome to What Would Have Happened Next, a recurring feature in which TVLine breaks down the plot twists, character developments, story arcs, and major moves that would’ve taken place… if only your favorite TV shows hadn’t been canceled.
It’s been more than five years since “Prodigal Son” went off the air, and we’re still not sure we’ve found a TV family as dysfunctional as the Whitlys.
The procedural thriller, which aired on Fox from 2019 to 2021, starred Tom Payne (“The Walking Dead”) as Malcolm Bright, a tortured soul and gifted profiler who assisted the NYPD in solving cases. In doing so, Bright was forced to reconnect with his father, Martin Whitly (Michael Sheen), better known as a serial killer called The Surgeon.
“Prodigal Son” was unfortunately canceled after two seasons, with the news breaking eight days before the sophomore finale aired — not that the advance notice brought any closure to the show’s storylines. On the contrary, the series ended on a stunning cliffhanger in which Bright stabbed his own father out of self-defense (the man was trying to kill him!), leaving Bright’s NYPD colleagues shocked as they arrived at the scene.
What would have happened in Prodigal Son Season 3?
Back in May 2021, when TVLine spoke with “Prodigal Son” co-creators Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver about the series finale, conversations were underway at Warner Bros. Television — the studio that produced the show — about potentially finding it another home. Thus, Fedak and Sklaver were somewhat tight-lipped about what would happen in Season 3, “because we’re still hopeful of being able to tell that story,” Sklaver said. (The series ultimately was not saved.)
Still, the EPs dropped some hints about what would have transpired, with all signs pointing to Martin Whitly surviving his stabbing.
“On a technical level, our plan was to include Michael Sheen in Season 3, so that gives you a little bit of insight into where we were going,” Fedak shared with us. “He was definitely going to be a part of the show.”
At the end of Season 2, Martin had also escaped from Claremont Psychiatric Hospital, where he’d been incarcerated, and Sklaver spoke to the appeal of keeping Martin “out in the world” if the show came back for more episodes.
“Bright stabbing Martin at the end wasn’t going to make anyone’s life easier, and I think our show flourishes when all of our characters face adversity,” Sklaver said. “There’s so many places that we could jump off from the ending of this season, and that’s what’s so exciting for us. … Take what you will from this, but something we were very interested in pushing further in Season 3 [was] just getting Martin out of Claremont more and giving this complex character even more dimensions.” (Meanwhile, here are five things we wish we’d gotten to see before “Prodigal Son” got the ax.)
