Yahoo Movies Lost almost ended after 3 seasons, says show boss Damon Lindelof
Lost's Damon Lindelof has revealed that the hugely popular drama was originally going to end after just three seasons.
The showrunner, who co-created the mind-bending series in 2004 alongside Jeffrey Lieber and JJ Abrams, said ABC execs started pushing them to unravel its mythology, as they were convinced viewers wouldn't stick around if it kept them in the dark too long.
Similarly, if they did stick around, they were worried they'd no longer be interested once things had been unravelled.
"One of the notes that we were getting back was, 'When are you gonna resolve these mysteries, and once you resolve these mysteries, why will people keep watching the show?'," Lindelof told Collider.
Related: Lost showrunner Carlton Cuse explains the "two problems" that meant the show had to end
"Level One of that was, 'Well we're gonna be introducing new mysteries as we go. So hopefully for every one that we answer, we've set up a new compelling mystery. If we get that balance right, they're not gonna stack up.'"
He went on to joke: "I think that we can both agree that we did not get that balance right!"
Elsewhere in the interview, Lindelof explained that he and fellow showrunner Carlton Cuse initially had certain things mapped out that they wanted to answer by the end of the first season ("What's in the hatch? What's up with the monster?"), and others by the end of its second ("How did Locke get in the wheelchair? Who are the Others? What is the nature of the island?").
Related: Lost stars reunite as MacGyver and Hawaii Five-0 crossover
However, due to its success at the time, ABC wasn't so keen to wrap it up.
When season two ended, Lindelof and Cuse agreed with the network to develop one more instalment, but insisted that if it were to go beyond that, they'd step away. When criticism started coming in from fans about the repetitiveness of the flashbacks and how frustrating it was to see Jack, Kate and the rest of the Flight 815 survivors so obviously being kept on the island by the writers, ABC agreed to wrap things up... after 10 seasons.
"I was like, 'I was thinking more like four [seasons]'," Lindelof remembered. "Not because I was in a negotiation but because we had actually already worked out the Oceanic 6 story to some degree.
"We knew that a number of the characters were going to get off the island, they were going to have a very miserable time when they were off the island, and then they were going to come back for the finale. We felt like we could kind of do that starting in the back half of season 3 and then have one more.
"They were like, 'How about nine?'" he laughed, adding that they eventually settled on six, but with fewer episodes than the original 25-long run.
Lost seasons 1-6 boxset is available on Blu-ray and DVD.
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