HBO says Big Little Lies Season 3 is "unlikely," calls Season 2 dispute "a lot of misinformation"

The Daily Beast

HBO programming president Casey Bloys addressed Indiewire's report that creative control on Season 2 was wrested from director Andrea Arnold. Bloys refuted aspects of the report, saying at the TV press tour there is “a lot of misinformation about the subject.” Bloys said Arnold was “never promised that she would have free rein," adding: “As anybody who works in television knows, a director typically doesn’t have final creative control. So the idea that creative control was taken from the director is just a false premise.” Bloys did confirm that Arnold edited her own version of Season 2 and that Season 1 director and executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée and his editing team honed it to their vision. “For anyone who understands television and how it works, this was business as usual,” Bloys said. “I would be hard-pressed to point to any show that airs a director’s cut as its episode.” Bloys also said Arnold was aware from the beginning that Vallée would be editing the episodes. Bloys also addressed a potential Season 3 following record ratings for the Season 2 finale.  “To me, on the face of it there’s no obvious place to go or no obvious story,” he said about extending the series. “If (the creative team) came to me and said, ‘We have the greatest take, listen to this,’ I would certainly be open to it because I love working with all of them. It doesn’t feel like it, but I’m certainly open.”