The Big Picture

Season 2 of Outer Range delves deeper into the supernatural, exploring the hole and mysterious mineral.
Showrunner Charles Murray embraces multiple storylines, setting the stage for an exciting Season 3.
The show’s future depends on Prime Video’s greenlight, with Season 2 laying the groundwork for more mysteries to unravel.

[Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Outer Range Season 2]

If you thought the Abbott family had a lot to contend with in Outer Range Season 1, the Josh Brolin-led sci-fi Western takes a leap of faith into the supernatural in Season 2. New aspects of the black hole and the mysterious mineral produced by it are explored, and character arcs are beginning to branch off in exciting ways, and it’s all helmed by Season 2’s new showrunner, Charles Murray (The Devil You Know), who served as an executive producer on the first season.

Murray is no stranger to the extraordinary, both in terms of sci-fi, with Marvel’s Luke Cage and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi under his producer’s belt, but also with storytelling in this particular format. Not only does he wrangle the multiple storylines Season 1 cooked up, but he embraces them as opportunities to forge forward, calling the different directions “an open door to continue to follow what’s there and to also expand on things.” After Royal Abbott (Brolin) drops that massive confession, and with both Perry Abbott (Tom Pelphrey) and Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton) traipsing off through time (and alternate timelines?), there’s even more to speculate on as we look to Season 3.

In this conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Murray discusses the writers’ room board with all the ideas that mapped out Season 2 and beyond and addresses what he thinks about Perry’s current situation and his ideas for where Wayne went. The showrunner also talks timelines and time travel, and how he and his writers will tackle Season 3 should Prime Video greenlight another season.

You can watch the full interview in the video above, or read the transcript below.

Outer Range A rancher fighting for his land and family discovers an unfathomable mystery at the edge of Wyoming’s wilderness.Release Date April 15, 2022 Creator Brian Watkins Seasons 2

How ‘Outer Range’s New Showrunner Laid the Groundwork for Season 2

COLLIDER: One of the things about Season 2 is that you guys really embraced the hole and the mineral, if you will, in a way that Season 1 did not. When you came in as the new showrunner, was it your mandate to do this or were you telling Prime Video, “We should really do this?”

CHARLES MURRAY: It’s always a discussion. They were like, “Look, we have this great show and we kind of want to push the narrative.” When you look at a show like this, especially when it’s combining genres and things like that, and following so many different directions, you kind of have an open door to continue to follow what’s there and to also expand on things. So, with things like the mineral and what the hole was and what the hole could do, that was all open space to explore. In those initial conversations, I was like, “Let’s play Wouldn’t It Be Cool…” It was like, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we did this? Wouldn’t it be cool if we did that?” And they were like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” So, they kind of leaned into what me and the writers were throwing back and forth with each other.

When you were laying track for Season 2 and figuring out the ultimate arc, Josh told me previously that he thought this could be a three-season show, and now I’ve spoken to him today, and he’s like, “Well, it could be more.” He seems pretty happy. So how much were you thinking about where it’s all gonna go, and how much are you like, “Fuck it, let’s just do Season 2, and we’ll figure out Season 3 if we get to make it?”

MURRAY: Let’s just figure out Season 2. Like anything, you can lay a lot of the groundwork and one story change, one actor changing, one actor suddenly having a breakout, it can change everything. So, we had to figure out what these seven episodes were before we could start talking about any seasons that was coming after. It was like, “Season 2, Season 2, Season 2.” Now, we had a board where we would go, “You know what would be good?” And you throw it up on the board, and you forget about it if it’s far down the line. But we were focused on Season 2.

It’s seven episodes this season, so I’m curious, was that story-based? Is that because Prime Video was looking for seven? How did you decide on seven?

MURRAY: They said to me, at the beginning, “You can tell eight, you can tell seven. You can tell whatever you feel the story will fit.” Once we started breaking each episode, when we reached where we reached for seven, I was like, “I think we’ve gone as far as we should go for this one.” They were open. It’s funny because I was watching an interview with Josh from a couple of years ago, and he was like, “The great thing about streaming is you can do eight episodes, you can do six episodes, you can do 10 episodes.” So, we didn’t feel like we were short-changing people, but I felt like if we had tried to push it beyond the point where we were we would have taken a misstep that would have backfired.

I’ve spoken to a lot of showrunners and they talk about how the studio says, “You can do any amount of episodes you want, but here’s your budget. So, you decide what you want to do.”

MURRAY: Yeah. I mean, we had a great budget. [Laughs] I’m not even gonna lean into that. We had a great budget. But sometimes, having worked on 22-episode shows, 13-episode shows, seven episodes, eight episodes, you kind of feel it when you know you’ve told enough for this period of time.

Also, it ends in a really good place. We’ll get into that in about a second. How did the show possibly change in the editing room in ways you didn’t expect going in?

MURRAY: Not much. We laid the groundwork very strongly. If I’m being honest, I think there were times when we may have rejiggered some stuff within an episode, but we never went, “Oh my god, we gotta do something different.” We pretty much stuck to what we wrote.

‘Outer Range’ Season 2 Spotlights Unexpected Heroes in a Western
Image via Prime Video 

One of the things I really dug is how you showed a Native American reservation. You played with time and you played with the hole, so talk a little bit about how you decided where you wanted to go in time.

MURRAY: My day-to-day folks at Amazon current are friends of mine and we had worked together on Luke Cage. So, we had a good working relationship. When we got to that episode it was going to be part of a larger part — present-day, past, middle passage of time. They just said, “Just go for it. Make this episode that.” Make it all about this particular time period and make it all about Joy. I was like, “Thank you,” because there was so much that we got to do in terms of telling a different Western than you’ve pretty much seen told — making a woman the hero of a Western in ways that you haven’t seen, making a Native American woman a hero of the Western in ways that, if they have been seen, are rare, and just literally lean into this particular story. I would say that was a great interface of friends, colleagues, studio to production, and just everybody getting behind doing something a little different. That’s how that particular episode came to be.

What do you think Wayne knows about the mineral that the audience doesn’t know, or is he figuring things out as we’re watching him figure things out?

MURRAY: I think he’s figuring it out as we watch him figure it out. I think when he takes that leap, he has an idea. The brain of an entrepreneur is to always see something different in the familiar. So, when he gets to that point where his entire life has pretty much been disassembled, I think his brain goes, “If this is what I think it is, maybe I can make something change from what I’m facing.” That’s what makes him take the risk that he takes. But I think he’s figuring it out as we see it.

Someone Is Controlling Time in ‘Outer Range’
Image via Prime Video 

I’m also wondering who and what might be able to figure out how to manipulate the hole or the mineral to its will rather than letting the hole dictate where someone ends up.

MURRAY: I think someone does because even if you look at Season 1 and you think about the whole BY9 story or snippets, and then that moment that you have in the future in Episode 2 of Season 1, when you see it looking all industrial, it looks like something out of Road Warrior. I think somebody has figured out how to harness this thing that we haven’t come to know yet. But I think that is connected to when Royal is in the scientist’s office and he turns around and sees the picture where she’s standing in front of a BY9 tanker. But I think, yes, that connective tissue is there and someone’s going to do it. I think when you look into that flash forward, Autumn is going to be very relevant in that particular story. It’s just getting to that part. It’s deciding when you’re gonna get to that point.

Also, for me, one of the really interesting things you ponder or open the door on is the fact that Perry has gone back in time and has saved Wayne’s son’s life. The question becomes, for me, is he off on an alt timeline, or are the repercussions of what he did eventually gonna go forward, like what happened with Wayne when he got punched?

MURRAY: It’s funny because I always think of the scene in [Avengers] Endgame when they’re discussing time travel [laughs], and Paul Rudd goes, “Wait, so Hot Tub Time Machine…?” It’s like, “No!” [Laughs] We have no full explanation of what time is and what it can do, and what that portal is. One of the things that I kept going back to with the room is that Cronos is mentioned. Is he real? Is he a part of this? Is there a way where one person can go into this different time and do something and it does have an effect, but someone else can go and do something and it doesn’t? Is this attached to where they’re supposed to be emotionally or where they are mentally? It’s an open-ended thing because there’s a world where, if Perry is on an alternate timeline, if he jumps back into that hole, he can end up back in his time. So you really can’t posit what that is going to do until you actualize it.

There’s something else, which is that in Episode 1 of Season 3, you could have the other son getting killed by Perry in another way. So time will always push certain focal points together, even if it’s not at the exact moment.

MURRAY: Right. Going by what you’re saying, there’s also a world where he’s in that timeline and realizes that he might be stuck in that timeline unless the thing that set him off happens again.

Where Did Wayne Go in ‘Outer Range’ Season 2?
Image via Amazon Prime Video

That’s the thing about the show is that you’re opening up a lot of stuff, especially the end of Season 2. When he jumps in the hole, do you know where Wayne is gonna end up or are you like, “It’s all on the whiteboard right now and we’ll figure it out?”

MURRAY: It’s definitely on the whiteboard in my brain. I have a sneaking suspicion that he thinks backwards and forwards. “If I go backwards, I’m gonna do X. If I go forwards, I’m gonna do Y.” So, I know where I think he’s going. I just haven’t shared it with anybody. It’s like, I worked on Day Break, and Paul Zbyszewski said, “Yeah, I know how it ends. I’m not telling you.” [Laughs] That’s what he used to tell us as the writers, so we were just like, “Oh, that’s cool because you’re gonna be able to course-correct us in what we are a part of.” Then, if there’s another season or a one-off where you do solve it, you have that all figured out. So, I have Paul Zbyszewski brain.

If Prime Video decides that they want to make a Season 3 and have you involved, how much do you have in your brain about Season 3? How long do you think it would take in the writers’ room and bring everyone back to get the scripts done?

MURRAY: The writers’ room for Season 2 was 24 weeks. So, if there’s a shot then it will take the natural course of gathering writers, getting in the writers’ room, throwing ideas back and forth, and the clock would be ticking right away. We would want to keep it in motion. And then — no pun intended, I promise you — time will do what it does. [Laughs]

I really think fans are gonna dig Season 2. Great job, and thank you for your time.

MURRAY: Thank you. That means a lot because I watch you a lot.

I get that at the end of interviews sometimes. They’re like “I’m glad you liked it.”

MURRAY: I’ve seen your interviews with Josh, even the Dune 2 thing. You were like, “Wait a minute, so about Outer Range…” [Laughs]

Related Josh Brolin Addresses His “Creepy” ‘Saturday Night Live’ Ode to Timothée Chalamet Brolin chats about this, ‘The Goonies’ sequel, ‘Sicario 3,’ and ‘Dune: Part Two’ behind-the-scenes in this Q&A for his new book, ‘Dune: Exposures.’

In all seriousness, I really enjoyed Season 2 because it embraced the hole and it embraced more of the sci-fi and what it can offer. That was my complaint with Season 1 is I think it should have embraced more of the hole. I was sort of waiting for it to do that.

MURRAY: Right. I feel that when you’re creating a show like that, and you don’t have IP or that kind of stuff, there are certain things that you will desire to aim at and other things will take over. I just think that that’s the nature of what we do in television. So, knowing that they didn’t gave us a lot of runway to do that.

All seven episodes of Outer Range Season 2 are available on Prime Video.

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