Killing Eve has already been renewed for a third season – with a new killer female showrunner
Suzanne Heathcote will take over from Emerald Fennell as head writer
Killing Eve has been renewed for a third season, just days after kicking off its second run in the US (it will debut in the UK later in the year).
Writer Suzanne Heathcote (Fear the Walking Dead) is poised to take over as showrunner from Emerald Fennell, who helmed the series' return in the wake of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's exit.
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“It’s been such an exciting year for me on Killing Eve," said Fennell said. "I think it’s cool that this tradition has been built into this untraditional show. Inheriting some of Phoebe’s characters was a treat – I can’t wait to see what Suzanne does next."
Waller-Bridge added: “I’m very excited that the Killing Eve baton is being passed onto another incredible writer for season three. We can sleep soundly knowing these characters are safe in Suzanne Heathcote’s hilariously murderous hands."
The third series has been confirmed to air on the BBC. Killing Eve has been a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, with the pilot of Waller-Bridge's drama coming second only to Bodyguard's premiere in iPlayer requests last year (8.9m for the former, 10.5m for the latter).
Usually when the role of showrunner is passed around like a hot potato, it spells trouble behind the scenes: creative differences, spats with the higher-ups, ballooning budgets. But Killing Eve is doing things differently. The drama’s creator and original writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge has founded a new “tradition” of handing the drama on to a new female showrunner every single season, telling press that giving “other voices” a chance to tell the story would be “a really cool thing to do.”
She’s not wrong. It’s particularly exciting that Killing Eve will remain in the hands of female screenwriters, and even better that the BBC America drama will boost the careers of up-and-comers like Emerald Fennell, who is already receiving positive reviews for season two, and Fear the Walking Dead writer Suzanne Heathcote, who takes over for season three. Last year Radio Times launched our Women’s Words campaign to push for greater opportunities for female screenwriters and highlight the amazingly talented women out there, and this feels like a leap in the right direction.
There is still no word on when season two will debut in the UK, though a BBC spokesperson told the Guardian that – while the wait won't be as long as last time – they can't release the episodes until the show has completed its run in the USA (the finale is set to air on Sunday 26th May):
“We have to wait until BBC America have premiered all of the weekly episodes – which as commissioning broadcaster they are entitled to do – before we can begin our transmission, otherwise we would be premiering episodes before them.
“The decision to make it a box set was based around how we thought audiences would enjoy the programme," the spokesperson added. "We are still experimenting with different release models and we know last time audiences really loved the fact we did this as a box set so they could binge.”
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