Smoke Showrunner Reveals Season 3 Plans and Flawed Protagonists

by

Coming soon on Apple TV+, there’s a highly anticipated drama titled “Smoke“. Its maker has a firm idea about the series’ duration. The narrative revolves around Taron Egerton’s character, Dave Gudsen, who is an arson investigator. In his small town, two separate serial arsonists are causing havoc and aiming to cause maximum damage.

The show launching on June 27, 2025, features Jurnee Smollett as Detective Michelle Calderon, a new partner for the character Dave, John Leguizamo as Esposito who was previously partnered with Dave, and Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine portraying local outcast Freddy.

TopMob recently conducted an exclusive chat with Smoke’s creator, Dennis Lehane. In this conversation, he expressed his desire to extend the series for three seasons and revealed that he has a clear vision of how these final seasons will conclude. However, ultimately, whether there will be additional episodes depends on viewer turnout.

Lehand discussed that the series is populated with imperfect characters, and the writer explained that he’s been creating characters based on their flaws. Additionally, during the writing process, they used the term “chaos” as a guiding principle. In truth, there are numerous emotional and psychological conflicts in the show.

Smoke Creator Wants the Apple TV+ Show to Go for Three Seasons

“I Have a Very Strong Sense of How Those Three Will End.”

  • TopMob: “What are the long-term plans here? How many seasons do you want to go for? Have you mapped out what a long-term looks like for this story?”

Dennis Lehand expresses his intention: “I aim to take the journey through three seasons.” The decision whether Apple also follows this path depends on the audience’s response, but he personally feels confident about completing three seasons and has a clear vision of how they will conclude. Regarding the specifics of how he reaches those ends, he remains uncertain.

Smoke Creator on Creating Flawed Protagonists

“I Always Build From the Flaws Out.”

  • TopMob: “The show has some extremely flawed protagonists in it. You know, really, none are contenders for best Person of the Year. How do you feel that that elevates the story that you are telling?”

Dennis Lehand: To be honest, I’m not sure if it makes them more complex or not. I simply can’t seem to write stereotypical heroes or villains. Instead, I prefer to portray ordinary individuals, and I believe most people are far from perfect… What I have consistently found, since I began writing, is that I construct characters around their imperfections. I don’t focus on what makes them powerful; instead, I explore their weaknesses or flaws because I find these aspects intriguing. I find the character in the white hat less captivating.

Dennis Lehand on the Thematic Presence of Fire in Smoke

“The Operating Word for Us When We Were Writing the Show Was Chaos.”

  • TopMob: “Now, fire is obviously the main focus of the story. But how does that permeate throughout the entire story you’re telling, further than just it literally being about fires, but like on a thematic and narrative level?”

When we were crafting the series, the guiding term was “chaos.” We found that the story revolved around this concept. Fire, being the most unruly element, seemed fitting for our theme. After all, controlling fire, especially when it’s left to rage in the wilderness, can be quite challenging. This idea of chaos served as a key to unlocking our characters too. In truth, the show features numerous emotional and psychological “fires.” There’s also plenty of actual fire on display. Essentially, fire permeates the series in multiple ways.

View the entire, spoiler-free interviews here:

If you want to see more interviews from TopMob, be sure to check here!

Read More

2025-06-17 01:04