EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Bridges‘ Dan Chase is going permanently off the grid. FX has opted not to renew drama The Old Man for a third season.
The series, which also stars John Lithgow, Amy Brenneman and Alia Shawkat, became largely a victim of circumstance. Over its two seasons, The Old Man’s production was halted several times. Its seven-episode first season started filming in 2019 and had three episodes left when it shut down at the start of the pandemic and later that year for star Bridges’ cancer treatment.
The Old Man launched on FX in June 2022, scoring the most-watched cable series premiere since January 2021, beating 60 other premium and basic cable dramas, comedies and limited series, while also becoming the most-watched FX series debut on Hulu in its opening weekend.
The strong showing earned The Old Man a Season 2 renewal. It was another unplanned production shutdown during the filming of the second season, due to the WGA strike, that proved key, making for a gap of two years and three months between seasons.
It is hard to keep fans’ attention for that long, especially with a newer series that had only been on for a season. Premiering in September, the seven-episode second season of The Old Man could not match the ratings performance of Season 1.
It has still scored with critics, recently receiving three Critics Choice TV nominations, Best Drama Series, Best Lead Actor in Drama Series for Bridges and Best Supporting Actor for Lithgow.
“That’s outstanding,” series executive producer Warrren Littlefield said of the nominations in an interview conducted last week. He reflected on the series’ complicated path.
“We’ve made 15 episodes in five years; what a crazy journey it’s been,” he said. “I love everyone involved with the show.”
Based on Thomas Perry’s bestselling book, The Old Man follows Dan Chase (Bridges), who absconded from the CIA decades ago and has been living off the grid since. When an assassin arrives and tries to take Chase out, the old operative learns that to ensure his future he now must reconcile his past.
E.J. Bonilla, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Bill Heck, Leem Lubany and Pej Vahdat also star in the series from Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine. Littlefield, Steinberg, Dan Shotz, Levine, Bridges, David Schiff and Jon Watts executive produced The Old Man, produced by 20th Television in association with The Littlefield Company.
