Season two of History’s Project Blue Book is over, and unless the show is picked up elsewhere, this could be the end of our UFO hunting dynamic duo. We caught up with Project Blue Book creator/writer/executive producer David O’Leary and showrunner/executive Producer Sean Jablonski to talk about what’s next in an interview Den of Geek live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook simultaneously.
“History has sort of opted out of the scripted series business,” says Jablonski. “Which is in some ways good for us, because the studio that produces and ultimately pays for the show is committed to finding another home for it like on a streaming service, which we feel could present a larger audience for us.”
Jablonski pointed out that Den of Geek got it right in a recent article covering the cancelation in that the cancelation was not due to performance. He says he had tons of calls from the network, letting him know it had to do with the “larger decision at a corporate level” to get out of scripted TV.
O’Leary says he looks forward to working with a streaming platform, addressing a concern some fans shared.
“It is getting harder and harder to tell a tele-scripted story when you have to go to commercial breaks,” says O’Leary. “I think on History we have to cut to five commercial breaks.”
The show’s fanbase has grown over the past two seasons, and they want the show back. A fan named Carsten Krikorka, who joined our Facebook chat room during the interview, has started a change.org site to get signatures for keeping the show on the air. So far, they have over 10,000 signatures and growing. There has also been a hashtag, #SaveBlueBook, that fans have been using on social media.
Another reason fans are itching for new episodes is due to the significant cliffhanger at the end of season two. One of the main characters, Captain Michael Quinn, got blown up while in a submarine checking out strange lights under the ocean. O’Leary has already leaked that the hunt for Quinn is where season three was going to begin.
“Hynek and Quinn, ‘Hynequinn’ as they are called, they’re our franchise,” explained Jablonski. “We had a strong plan on how we wanted to approach season three at the end of season two. It wasn’t something we were going to stretch out, even going into season three.”
“I can share with you right now, at Project Blue Book we had a writers room, we wrote all of season three,” Jablonski revealed. “We can tell you – we are not going to tell you – but we have the entire season laid out. Which is also where it is like, ‘ugh.’ We have all of these great stories to tell. Where we left off was a jumping point into bigger and better things.”
“Yeah, Sean, you hit it,” O’Leary added. “I mean, like, that is something for fans to know, and honestly, frankly, potential new homes for our show to know, is that this season of Project Blue Book was knocked out. We are at the end of season three in our minds.”
So what can we expect in season three, should there be one?
“We don’t want to say too much,” says O’Leary. “But we will just say that in 1954 there was something known as the worldwide UFO panic and anyone who knows UFO history knows it went all the way around the world. Project Blue Book looked into cases around the world as well. UFOs are a global phenomenon, and that never became more true in 1954.”
“A global phenomenon and a global conspiracy,” Jablonski added.
The conversation then turned to how many seasons they have in them should the show get picked up. Decades worth says, Jablonski.
“You always want to have as many as you can,” Jablonski explained. “The great thing is Blue Book had 12,000 cases, so we have an endless supply. ”
“The joke has always been six seasons and a movie,” Jablonski continued. “I think we can do seven seasons and a movie easily.”
Fans in the chat also wanted to know more about what happens to some of their favorite characters.
When it comes to Mimi, Hynek’s wife, “she gets very involved with the UFO Phenomenon moving forward,” says Jablonski.
“She is not just able to talk to Allen [Hynek] about stuff, she also has her own information,” Jablonski continued. “Some of the information she’s learning can also be in conflict with what he is figuring out.”
“She explores aspects of the phenomenon that Hynek isn’t exploring,” O’Leary added.
Others wanted to know about Susie, the Russian spy. The end of the season left her in a bit of a bind. A viewer asked, “Do you have a scenario to get Susie out of her fix?”
Jablonski responded, “The short answer is ‘Yes.’”
O’Leary gave up a bit more: “I think I teased that we haven’t seen the last of Susie at some point, we have some wonderful ideas for her.”
Finally, the mysterious Man in Black, aka Michael, aka The Unseen, came up. When asked if he will return, O’Leary responded: “Not only do I have a soft spot for the Unseen character and always have, Ian Tracey (the actor who portrays Unseen) is amazing.”
Mirroring Jablonski’s earlier response, O’Leary then added, “the short answer is ‘Yes.’”
“Aiden, on our final podcast for season two, one of the last things he said in our podcast kind of spoke to what he felt was the importance of the Unseen/William character,” O’Leary recounted. “He sees [Unseen] as being a bit of the soul of the show, a bit of the embodiment of the mystery. Sean and I both agree with that.”
There is an audience for Project Blue Book, and they already have season three written. It seems like a no brainer; the show is worth picking up. Hopefully, O’Leary and Jablonski and the team will find a new home. We’ll let you know how it goes.