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Ricky Gervais keen to break his own rules and make third season of 'After Life'

Ricky Gervais pushes David Bradley in a wheelchair in this still from <i>After Life</i>. (Netflix)
Ricky Gervais pushes David Bradley in a wheelchair in this still from After Life. (Netflix)

Ricky Gervais has expressed an interest in making a third season of his Netflix series After Life. If he goes ahead with it, it would be the first of his scripted shows to earn a third full season.

Talking to Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby on This Morning about the possibility of another season following the release of season 2, the 58-year-old comic said: “For the first time ever I think I would do a series three. Just because the world is so rich, there’s so many characters.

“There’s characters in this that could be the lead, like in six or seven cases. It’s got to go down a storm and it seems to be at the moment. If it carries on like this then yeah, there could be a third.”

Read more: Jo Hartley talks After Life S2

Set in the fictional town of Tanbury, After Life follows the trials and tribulations of Gervais’ character Tony and his circle of friends as he deals with the grief of losing his wife.

Gervais’ first show, co-written with Stephen Merchant, The Office set the pace lasting for two acclaimed six-episode seasons and two Christmas specials. His following show Extras, also written with Merchant, had two seasons and one Christmas special. Life’s Too Short, written with and starring Warwick Davis, had one season and a special, while Derek had a pilot, two seasons and a special.

In 2012, Gervais explained that the creative process for The Office had left him spent, so decided to end it before they started repeating themselves.

Ricky Gervais as David Brent in The Office (BBC)
Ricky Gervais as David Brent in The Office (BBC)

“It’s so intense, particularly when you do everything yourself, it’s not like there was a team of 20 writers and producers,” he said on CBS This Morning, via HuffPost. “You put everything into it, and that was the first thing I did, and it’s sort of like a lifetime’s work, really.

Read more: After Life S2 offers more of the same

“I didn’t want to repeat myself or water it down, so I just left it as it was, and I’ve never regretted that, really. I miss it, but I’ve never regretted.”

Joe Wilkinson, Roisin Conaughty, Ricky Gervais in After Life. (Netflix)
Joe Wilkinson, Roisin Conaughty, Ricky Gervais in After Life. (Netflix)

He reprised his The Office character David Brent in 2016’s mockumentary film David Brent: Life On The Road.

Before the second season launched on 24 April, Gervais told Series Linked podcast a third season could be a possibility. “This one, I want to do a third, I think. Because I’ve never set up such a world before. This is a real place. Every path leads to the rest of the world. Like real life. Every path leads to a new world, and how often do you know a character?

“You’ve seen those characters for five-and-a-half hours. You don’t know anyone after five-and-a-half hours, and you don’t know their friends.”

After Life S2 is streaming now on Netflix.