https://www.facebook.com/nether.providence/photos/a.753428594784315/3903204473140029/?type=3 The appeal of the series is clear, considering it racked up three awards at the 2021 Primetime Emmys, including one for Winslet for Best Actress in a Limited Series or movie. (JulianneNicholson also won for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited Series and Evan Peters won for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.) Winslet reminded herself to breathe during her emotional acceptance speech. “I just want to acknowledge my fellow nominees in this decade that has to be about women having each other’s backs. I support you. I salute you; I am proud of all of you,” Winslet said during the Emmy ceremony on CBS. “Mare of Easttown… it was this cultural moment, and it brought people together and gave them something to talk about other than a global pandemic.” She then thanked series creator Brad Ingelsby, applauding him for creating “a middle-aged, imperfect, flawed mother and made us all feel validated.” Speaking of Ingelsby, Parade.com recently went straight to the source to ask him what he thinks about revisiting the greater Delco area on the small screen. Here’s everything we know about Season 2 of Mare of Easttown, including Ingelsby’s thoughts on renewing the acclaimed series.
Will there be a Mare of Easttown Season 2?
Mare of Easttown has not officially been renewed for Season 2, but Ingelsby exclusively tells Parade.com that he would love to revisit the series—and that the possibility of finding a new story to tell with Winslet back in the title role is definitely doable. “Mare is a detective, so you always have that access point; there’s always a case,” explains Ingelsby, best known for his movies The Way Back (starring Ben Affleck) and American Woman (starring Sienna Miller). “So, that doesn’t feel like a stretch, and it certainly opens the door to another show. You have her job that could easily allow another case. Now what that case is, how it’s exciting, and how you can have a compelling mystery that involves people in the town; I just don’t know what this is right now.” He adds, “I would love nothing more than to write Mare, Helen, Siobhan, and Lori again. But I also want to make sure that if I ever went down that road, that we had a story we were confident was really good and really emotional, and I haven’t come up with that story yet. I feel like Season 1 was such a personal, emotional journey into Mare’s life, so it comes down to what could we give Mare to deal with personally that doesn’t feel like we’re repeating the same issues she dealt with in the first season. I just don’t know when it would be, but never say never!” For Ingelsby, an attractive perk of a Mare renewal would be getting the chance to reunite with Winslet, who was his first choice to play the show’s title character. In his interview with Parade.com, Ingelsby praised Winslet for setting the tone of the entire production by “being so lovely and kind. With someone like that at the top; it definitely trickles down.” Perhaps another sign that Ingelsby is ready to return to Delco with a Mare Season 2? He says he’s going back to his native Pennsylvania in real life! “I’m moving back to Pennsylvania after 12-plus years in California,” he explains. “Being home and shooting the show there, made me realize I should be back there permanently, to be around family and friends. I want the kids to grow up with their cousins. So, yes, it impacted me immensely.” In the meantime, Ingelsby also has a three-year production deal with HBO to create additional TV material, and he is still figuring out his next project. “We are in talks about a couple of things, and hopefully soon we will find something that we feel passionate about," he says.
Who is Mare Sheehan in Mare of Easttown?
Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) is a police detective in a small-town Pennsylvania who investigates a brutal murder as she tries to keep her life from falling apart as she deals with great personal and career angst. She is the divorced mother of a teenage daughter (AngourieRice) who lives next door to her ex-husband (DavidDenning) and his fiancé (KateArrington), while at the same time grieving her late son and caring for her grandson.
When did Mare of Easttown premiere?
Mare of Easttown’s Season 1 premiere aired on April 18, 2021. Unlike many new shows these days, Mare kept to an old-fashioned rollout schedule, dropping just one new episode of the series every week.
How many episodes in Mare of Easttown?
Mare of Easttown’s first season featured 7 episodes.
Who’s in the cast of Mare of Easttown?
Kate Winslet as Mare Sheehan
The Oscar, Emmy, and Grammy-winning British actress became a breakout film star with her leading role in Titanic opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Her subsequent project includes movies The Reader, Revolutionary Road, The Holiday, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, —plus, she previously starred in another highly acclaimed HBO miniseries, Mildred Pierce. A devoted mom of three, Winslet had just finished the period drama Ammonite when Ingelsby sent her the Mare of Easttown screenplay and asked her to play the leading role, which she says appealed to her because she was looking to take on a part that would challenge her and take her on a unique journey. She recently won the Best Actress Emmy in a Limited Series or Movie for Mare of Easttown; her second Emmy win. The first was for Mildred Pierce.
Jean Smart as Helen Fahey
Seattle native Jean Smart got her start in 1975 performing in regional theater throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 1985, she was cast in the co-starring role of Charlene Frazier Stillfield on the comedy series Designing Women, a role she played for five seasons. She is also known for her role on the hit TV series Frasier (opposite Kelsey Grammer) as Lana Gardner, an old high school classmate that both Frasier and Niles had crushes on during high school. For her work on Frasier, she won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, calling that sitcom “hilarious and brilliant.” Smart is a prolific television actress who has also been seen in Harry’s Law, Fargo, Watchmen, and films including The Accountant, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and The Brady Bunch Movie. Most recently, she was nominated for a best-supporting actress Emmy for Mare of Easttown. While Smart did not win an Emmy for her role as Winslet’s mother in Mare of Easttown, she won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in the critically lauded HBO series, Hacks.
Guy Pearce as Richard Ryan
Guy Pearce started his career with a four-year stint as Mike Young on the popular Aussie soap Neighbours in the mid-80s. After his first film at age 20, Pearce won the role of an outrageous drag queen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994. His other memorable film roles include L.A. Confidential, The Hurt Locker, The King’s Speech, and Mildred Pierce, opposite longtime pal Winslet.
Evan Peters as Detective Colin Zabel
Born and raised in the St. Louis suburbs, Evan Peters is best known for his multiple roles on the FX anthology series American Horror Story, as Stan Bowes in the first season of the FX ballroom drama series Pose, and as Peter Maximoff/Quicksilver in the X-Men film series. Peters made his acting debut in the 2004 drama Clipping Adam, and starred in the ABC science fiction series Invasion from 2005 to 2006. In 2021, though, Peters achieved a new level of breakout success. Not only was he nominated for an Emmy for his portrayal of Detective Colin Zabel on Mare, but he also brought back his X-Men character for a surprise stint on the megahit Marvel series WandaVision on Disney+. Peters recently won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie in Mare of Easttown.
Julianne Nicholson as Lori Ross
Julianne Nicholson is best known for her main and supporting roles in multiple indie and dramatic films and TV series. The former model played NYPD Detective Megan Wheeler on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and has had memorable roles in Ally McBeal, Boardwalk Empire, The Outsider, and Masters of Sex. he also portrayed Ivy in the film adaptation of August: Osage County opposite Meryl Streep. In 2016, Nicholson played the lead role of Sheriff Helen Torrance in USA Network’s 10-episode police drama Eyewitness. She recently won an Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or movie for her emotional performance in Mare of Easttown. During her acceptance speech, Nicholson praised Winslet as an actress and as aproducer. “Not only are you good at acting," she told Winslet, during the ceremony on CBS, “[it] turns out you’re great at caring for a whole production.”
Angourie Rice as Siobhan Sheehan
A 20-year-old Australian actress, Angourie Rice has quite a film resumé for such a young actress. Rice, who was named after a town in New South Wales where her grandmother lived, began her career as a child actress and is known for her roles in These Final Hours and The Nice Guys, opposite Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. She is also known for her portrayal of Betty Brant in Marvel’s Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017 and Spider-Man: Far FromHome in 2019; she’s set to reprise that role in this year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. In 2019, Rice starred opposite MileyCyrus in the Season 5 finale of Black Mirror, an episode described as a combination “save-the-day buddy romp” and “a teen sci-fi adventure.”
Was Mare of Easttown based on a book?
Surprisingly, no! Unlike other recent, female-led HBO shows like The Undoing, Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects, Mare ofEasttown came from an original screenplay and was not based on any book.
Where did the idea for Mare of Easttown come from?
“The story came from a desire to want to write about home, how I grew up, and the rhythms and rituals of life in this particular part of the country,” Ingelsby explains.
Where was Mare of Easttown filmed?
While Easttown is a fictional place, filming for the series took place in several real-life towns in the greater Philadelphia area, including Wallingford, Coatesville, Chadds Ford, Phoenixville, and Springfield.
What happened in Season 1 of Mare of Easttown?
As her life crumbles around her, small-town Pennsylvania detective Mare Sheehan investigates a local murder. The series explores the dark side of a close community and provides an authentic examination of how family and past tragedies can define our present. With the apparent weight of the world on her shoulders, Mare works tirelessly to protect and defend her tight-knit, working-class community, even as of her personal and family relationships are in peril. Mare is also grappling with her son’s death, trying to get sole custody of her young grandson and keeping her teenage daughter, Siobhan, from succumbing to foolish teenage mistakes. She is also arguing with her mother, Helen, dating a promising new guy, and dealing with her ex-husband’s upcoming marriage. All of this is happening as she devotes every fiber of her being toward solving the murder of a teenage girl that has the town upended. There are many twists and turns along the path to finding the killer, while longtime relationships hang in the balance. For creator Ingelsby, Mare’s first season was “about telling stories of resilience. I think the show aimed to show the importance of mercy. In all forms and in all ways. Lori loves a child that caused her world to crumble—that is the ultimate act of mercy in my mind,” he explains. “And Mare embraces Lori when all the others have shunned her. The commonality is how accepting and giving mercy can save you, and how rejecting it can devastate you.”
Has Mare of Easttown won any awards?
The riveting miniseries recently won three Emmy Awards; Best Actress for Winslet, Best Supporting Actor for Peters, and Best Supporting Actress for Nicholson. The series was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards in the Limited Series or Movie category, including Best Writing (Ingelsby) and Directing (CraigZobel). “I was overwhelmed and thrilled. And grateful to all the wonderful cast and crew who helped bring the story to life,” Ingelsby says about all the Emmy nominations. “I congratulated them all and told them how grateful I was that they signed on in the first place. My family was extremely excited, as well.” Winslet, who also served as an executive producer of the miniseries, told PEOPLE after she heard the Emmy nominations announcement, “I feel like all 16 of my children just graduated. I have been doing this job for nearly 30 years, but when it comes to comments like this, it feels particularly special. By learning and integrating into that life, we got lucky, and people appreciated it.”
How to watch Mare of Easttown
All 7 episodes of the first season of Mare of Easttown are currently available to stream on HBO Max. Next, check out Mare of Easttown’s Emmys competition with our list of all the 2021 nominees!
