Phoebe Waller-Bridge Plans To Write Herself Into 'Killing Eve' Season 3
The creator of Killing Eve plans her return for Season 3, and this time, she's facing down Villanelle herself.
When Killing Eve arrived on BBC America in 2018, it was an instant critical darling due to the way it played with the long-running U.K. spy thriller by recasting both roles as women. It was also the second significant triumph for comedian Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who came up with the concept, wrote the scripts, and was showrunner on the first season. Her first series, Fleabag, was not as widely known, but adored by critics, who once again loved her unorthodox way of approaching well-known narrative tropes.
But though some critics (and our readers) loved Killing Eve's follow up season earlier this year, some complained that something was missing. They were right, it was Waller-Bridge. While working on Killing Eve, she came up with an idea for a second season of Fleabag, and when it was greenlit, she decided that was the project she wanted to do. Killing Eve was passed to a new female writer and showrunner, Emerald Fennell, who like Waller-Bridge had started her career as an actress and comedian. (PBS fans will know her as Nurse Patsy Mount in Call the Midwife.)
With no Fleabag Season 3 to come, Waller-Bridge could easily return to showrunning Killing Eve, but having already passed it to Fennell, she's decided to do something unorthodox yet again.
Killing Eve Season 3 will go to a new female showrunner and writer, Suzanne Heathcote, who much like Fennell and Waller-Bridge, is looking for opportunities to run things from behind the camera. Heathcote is best known for her work on AMC zombie series Fear the Walking Dead, and fans are looking forward to where she takes the new season.
But Waller-Bridge isn't done with her creation. As reported in The Guardian, since she's no longer needed behind the camera, she's taking an on-screen role for the new season: "planning a grisly, 007-style demise for herself" at the hands of the show's antagonist Villanelle (Jodie Comer).
“I was like, I am going to write myself a part so that I can be murdered by Jodie."
Can anyone blame her, really? Considering that Waller-Bridge is just coming off working on the latest script for the as-yet-untitled Bond 25 film, one can assume she's got all sorts of ways for Villanelle to kill her off in mind. And with both Killing Eve and Fleabag now certified hits, and with plenty of Emmy awards buzz for Waller-Bridge for both her writing and acting in the latter, no one is about to stop her if she'd like to give herself a bit of gory fun while she's riding so high.
As of right now, there's no word on when Killing Eve will return, but most assume it will premiere in the spring of 2020 on BBC America, and then follow as a binge-watch series on the BBC iPlayer once it concludes its run over here. As for if Waller-Bridge will get to play out her own death at the hands of Villanelle, well, who wouldn't? Let's just hope Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) is suitably impressed.
