Ryan Murphy offers uncertain update on The Watcher season 2: 'I don't know'

Since The Watcher made its debut on Netflix in October 2022 and renewed for a second season one month later, fans of the mystery thriller series have been waiting for updates on season 2. Well, co-creator Ryan Murphy finally gave us the update we have been waiting for, but it's a little bit unclear. Actually, no, it's extremely unclear and not super promising.

Rather than sharing when The Watcher season 2 will begin filming or how far along in the writing process they are or anything hinting at any actual content, the busy television producer seems to have distanced himself from the Netflix series and focused more on the Monster anthology series and the handful of new shows he's creating under his current deal with Disney.

Here's the update Ryan Murphy shared in an interview with Deadline:

"I have a great partner in all my work there in Ian Brennan. Ian and I love doing Monsters and that will continue. We’ll continue doing it as long as they want it and I know that they do want it, and we’re signed up to do more seasons of it. I don’t know about The Watcher. I think Ian might be doing that. I sort of feel like my plate is so full with Monsters and my six Disney shows that I’m like ‘I’m good.'"

- Ryan Murphy

It's no surprise that of all the shows Murphy would delegate to his frequent collaborators, it would be The Watcher. The Netflix series was originally meant to be a miniseries and only have one season, but when the show attracted a larger audience than expected, Netflix opted to renew the series for another season. It's still unclear what the second season would be about.

The Watcher season 2 gets update from Ryan Murphy

Murphy has kept busy lately launching a half-dozen new shows, including FX's Grotesquerie, ABC's Doctor Odyssey, the third season of Hulu's American Horror Stories, the first season of American Sports Story, the eighth season of 9-1-1, and the fifth and final season of 9-1-1: Lone Star. He's also gearing up for three new shows: Hulu's legal drama All's Fair, FX's sci-fi medical drama The Beauty, and the first season of FX's American Love Story.

The prolific producer has quite the full plate (not to mention the new seasons of American Crime Story and American Horror Story that are still in development), so sharing the load with Ian Brennan makes sense. Beyond the upcoming third season of Monster, which will star Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein, Murphy's work on his remaining Netflix shows will likely be limited. He still seems super passionate about Monster, but The Watcher? Not as much.

It shouldn't be cause for concern that there's not a more concrete update about The Watcher season 2. Murphy's anthology series have started to take longer breaks in between each season. American Horror Story used to crank out a new season each year, but series like American Crime Story and Monster can take two years or more between seasons. It's frustrating for fans, sure, but it works since each season tells a self-contained story.

That's a good sign that The Watcher season 2 could potentially tell a new story with a new cast, though the opposite could be true as well. The Watcher star Naomi Watts is working with Murphy again in All's Fair with Kim Kardashian, Glenn Close, and more big names. Filming on the Hulu legal drama begins this month, which could free up Watts for The Watcher after production wraps. But we'll have to wait for a more specific update to find out what to really expect from season 2.

Stay tuned for more news and updates on The Watcher from Netflix Life!