They also start experiencing mysterious “callings.”
NBC initiallycanceled the show after three seasons, despite many cliffhangers and Rake’s plans for a six-season series.
But not unlike the passengers of Flight 828,Manifesthas come back from oblivion.
Josh Dallas and Melissa Roxburgh on ‘Manifest’.Peter Kramer/Warner Brothers/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congratulations, Jeff!!
What was your reaction when you found out all your efforts to save the show had paid off?
JEFF RAKE:Oh my goodness.
‘Manifest’ stars Melissa Roxburgh, Josh Dallas, Luna Blaise, and Matt Long, and series creator Jeff Rake.Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
It’s such a combination of emotions, from gratitude to humility to shock and awe and incredible excitement.
You’re hoping for the best but don’t want to go through a second round of disappointment.
Why do you think it worked this time around?
It must feel good to know the fans are so invested.
It was incredibly cool.
It was also a really big challenge.
It was important to me to stay in communication with the fans.
They want to know more, they want to understand what’s what’s happening.
It was actually really tricky because I wanted to keep everyone engaged to keep people watching.
That was a really fair question.
Having faith was a big theme on the show last season too.
You’re right, it was a theme of last season.
It’s an underlying theme of the entire series.
To quote the show, “It’s all connected!”
It is all connected!
So back inJune when you spoke with EW, Netflix had passed on picking up the show.
What changed over the last couple of months?
Was it just the consistently high viewing numbers?
So my suspicion is that it took the viewers a while to dig in to all of those episodes.
It’s possible that it took a longer than a typical show to binge the entirety of the series.
After 28 days in that No.
My guess is some heads were turning behind the scenes by that point as well.
Truly worth the wait.
So you have 20 episodes for your fourth and final season.
You initially planned to have six seasons.
Are you condensing story lines?
Do you have to make any changes to the endgame?
The endgame won’t change at all.
That would’ve been so stressful!
To tie up all the loose ends in two hours…
So it will not be a particularly difficult exercise to overlay that same exact roadmap onto 20 episodes.
It will be quite organic.
Are you still figuring out how many episodes will be released at one time?
I don’t think that’s been decided.
I don’t think that’s ultimately my decision.
I’ll certainly have those conversations with Netflix.
I’ll offer my opinion.
Netflix has been so lovely in my conversations with them so far.
We’re going to keep making the show that everyone fell in love with.
Are all the core cast members going to be returning?
We haven’t finished those conversations yet.
I am hopeful that everybody is back.
As you and I are talking right now, negotiations continue.
I’m cautiously optimistic that all of our favorite characters will be returning to the story.
When do you all head back into the writers' room?
The writers' room is opening up this week.
We couldn’t be more excited.
We certainly expect to be in production this calendar year.
I’m hopeful that cameras are rolling in November or December latest.
We also want them to be excellent.
The first three seasons ofManifestare available to stream onNetflix,Hulu,Peacock, and more now.
