Ooh, this is interesting and explains a lot. Mark Ruffalo spoke to Deadline this weekend about “Poor Things” at a recent BAFTA party. He also may have let some premature cats out of the bags. One of Ruffalo’s next projects is an HBO series called “Task” (that title is new too); it shoots in March, and maybe it’s something we may have to retroactively add to our Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2024 list if they can complete it for this year.
READ MORE: HBO Teaming Up With Mark Ruffalo & ‘Mare Of Easttown’ Creator Brad Ingelsby For New Police Task Force Series
The series takes place in the working-class Philadelphia suburbs and follows an FBI agent (Ruffalo) at the helm of a special task force. His goal is to put an end to a string of drug house robberies led by an unwary householder. If that sounds familiar, it should.
“Task” is written and created by showrunner Brad Ingelsby, known for HBO’s critically acclaimed series, “Mare Of Easttown,” the blockbuster Philly-set drama that starred Kate Winslet as a homicide detective and cleaned up at the Emmys in 2021, earning 17 times nominations, winning Winslet the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie award.
And Ruffalo said the upcoming mini-series, which features Jeremiah Zagar (“We Are The Animals”) as a lead director, is set in the same universe as “Mare Of Easttown,” and the two series could connect at some point.
He plays a good guy “but complicated. He’s badly damaged but fighting for good,” Ruffalo explained about his character in “Task,” who is the head of an investigation that involves murder and kidnapping.
Ruffalo admitted that ‘Task’ is set in the “same universe” as ‘Mare of Easttown,’ “It’s in Philly.” “At some point, those two [series] might run into each other in the future, that’s what they’re saying. It’s not set, nothing’s set,” he cautioned. “The writing’s amazing. Now let’s see if I can do it.”
This would make sense. Kate Winslet had met with the creator a few times and been urging Ingelsby to make a “Mare Of Easttown” season two (to the point that I heard she was dropping several other projects in its wake; she was so keen on doing more). Ingelsby evidently wasn’t convinced it was the move, talking publicly in a few interviews about how her character’s arc had been completed, so he wasn’t sure he saw the point in doing more (and in fact, at one point last year, HBO’s Casey Bloys said season two wasn’t going to happen).
“It was always conceived as one season.” Inglesby told us at the time in a 2021 interview. “if I had an idea that I was convinced could be great and would allow us to spend time with these people, and also be a great mystery and thriller, then I would definitely consider it.”
Maybe this is that potential idea? And if “Task” is a hit, this would be a brilliant way to bring back the ‘Easttown’ character without doing a proper, linear sequel, thus helping the showrunner justify the reason to bring her back. Perhaps it would be a third, distinct mini-series with those two leads and a new crime.
“Task” also co-stars Tom Pelphrey, Fabien Frankel, Emilia Jones, Raúl Castillo, and Salli Richardson-Whitfield (“Altered Carbon”) as another one of the directors of the series. We were already excited for “Task,” Ingelsby is terrific and also wrote the underrated Ben Affleck drama, “The Way Back,” in 2020, but now we’re even more excited, and hope the show lands in late 2024. A connection to “Mare Of Easttown” in a follow-up limited series would be the cherry on top. Fingers crossed.