Showtime may have canceled “Ray Donovan” before the drama series could tie up all of its loose ends, but showrunner David Hollander says he would “never say never” to a possible revival.
“I never know. This is a big show,” he told CinemaBlend of the possibility of bringing the show back to make its intended eighth season.
“To be fair to our bosses, ‘Ray Donovan,’ for the Showtime model, was a very expensive show. We were going into our eighth season with salaries and all the step-ups for union. And the move to New York was extraordinarily expensive, so there’s that,” he continued.
“Is there an audience that wants to see this, that will create a demand cycle where someone will absorb the risk? I would never say never. It is much easier to do in the now. The sets are still standing. The people are still contracted. The mechanisms are in place. Once we tear down the sets and put the costumes away… it’s a lot of actors who are in demand.”
The drama, which starred Liev Schreiber as an elite Hollywood fixer, wrapped its seventh and now final season on Jan. 21. Showtime announced its decision to cancel it last week.
“After seven incredible seasons, Ray Donovan has concluded its run on Showtime,” Showtime said in a statement at the time. “We are proud that the series ended amid such strong viewership and on such a powerful note. Our deepest thanks go to Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, showrunner David Hollander and the entire cast and crew, past and present, for their dedicated work.”
This isn’t the first time Hollander has spoken out about the shocking cancellation.
“We were used to being a show that was not canceled. We never thought we would be canceled,” Hollander said of the nay-cable network’s surprise decision in an interview with Vulture published last week.
The showrunner said he was given “no indicator” that the show’s fate was in danger.
“We were behaving creatively as though we were in mid-sentence. And so, there was no sense that this was going to be a completion. This was in no way a series finale.”