Wallander to return for fourth and final series
Wallander, the police procedural drama series adapted from Swedish novelist Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander novels and starring Sir Kenneth Branagh will return, most likely, to BBC One and PBS in 2015. That’s the brilliant news. The bad news is that the fourth series will be the last according to Branagh.
The three episode fourth series will consist of an adaptation of “The White Lioness” and a two-episode adaptation of Mankell’s final Wallander novel, “The Troubled Man”. Ronan Bennett, writer of the Johnny Depp gangster film Public Enemies, is on board to write at least the final two episodes with the writer of the first episode yet to be confirmed. Interestingly, “The White Lioness”, which is set in South Africa, has not been adapted for any of the Wallander series. Filming is planned to take place in the summer of 2014.
There is a shining light at the end of the tunnel, however, as Branagh admitted back in 2012 that he is open to making a fifth series of Wallander if Swedish novelist Mankell were to write more books in the future. Hope came in the form of a quote from Branagh himself, who told Digital Spy, “Henning Mankell had said recently that he enjoyed the series so much that it made him want to write some more books. I feel our series has particularly taken its DNA from these novels. So if there are more of those, I’m sure we might think about it.”
I feel a bit like rationalizing this bit of hope like Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber when talking with Mary Swanson.
Lloyd: Hit me with it! Just give it to me straight! The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I’d say more like one out of a million.
Lloyd: So you’re telling me there’s a chance… *YEAH!*