Kate Winslet 'would absolutely love' a second season for 'Mare of Easttown'

People loved Mare of Easttown so much that HBO Max crashed during the series finale May 30, so it goes without saying that a second season would be welcomed and probably preferred over the original plan for Mare to only exist as a seven-episode limited series.

Kate Winslet, who played titular character Detective Mare Sheehan, won't need much convincing.

"I would absolutely love to play Mare again," Winslet told TVLine, referencing a possible second season. "I miss her. I really do. It's the strangest thing. I feel like I'm in mourning. It was an absolutely wonderful role. ... There's something very addictive about Mare, because she's so outrageous and lovable and brilliant and real, you know? I loved playing her."

The Oscar-winning actress discussed how much she enjoyed the rawness of this role—even noting she refused to let director Craig Zobel edit out "a bulgy bit of belly" from her love scene with Guy Pearce, as she fought against all airbrushing for any promotional material—in more depth for a profile in The New York Times published last week:

"Listen, I hope that in playing Mare as a middle-aged woman—I will be 46 in October—I guess that's why people have connected with this character in the way that they have done because there are clearly no filters. She's a fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from. I think we're starved of that a bit. 

"In episode one, she's having sex on a couch. I said to my husband, 'Am I OK with that? Is it all right that I’m playing a middle-aged woman who is a grandmother who does really make a habit of having one-night stands?' He's like, 'Kate, it’s great. Let her do it.'"

Casey Bloys, the chief content officer for HBO and HBO Max, is just as open to the idea of more Mare as Winslet.

"If Brad [Ingelsby] felt like he had a story to tell that felt like it would be at the same level, I think everybody would be open to it," Bloys told Variety. "Right now, he doesn't have that story. Who knows? We'll have to wait to see if they come up with something they're dying to tell."

Mare of Easttown was created by Ingelsby, who had executively produced and wrote on the Ben Affleck-led basketball drama The Way Back (2020). The hit series included Jean Smart, Angourie Rice and John Douglas Thompson in the cast.

HBO's official description explains the premise: "As her life crumbles around her, a small-town Pennsylvania detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet) 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."

If you haven't indulged yet, watch the trailer below.