While Netflix is yet to announce a decision about the future of its controversial true crime anthology series Monster, bosses already have big plans for the franchise.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ian Brennan – who co-created the show with TV superproducer Ryan Murphy – claimed that he and his collaborator have “both said we want to do 10 of them”.
Asked about whether the team had settled on a central figure for a potential fifth run, he claimed: “We never do. We always switch. It’s always three or four different ones, and we toggle between.
“There’s a hopper of three things, but Ryan and I both said we want to do 10 of them. It’s a fairly exhaustive list, but it’s tricky.”
He continued: “You’d be surprised at how many subjects we start and then abandon, because it’s just not [right].
“You can really tell when it’s wrong right away, because you’re asking people to spend seven or eight or nine or 10 hours getting inside this person’s head. They better be really interesting.
“That’s always the challenge with this show – finding that. And then once we do, it flies out.”
So far, the seasons of Monster have focussed on figures as wide-ranging as Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menéndez brothers, Ed Gein and, most recently, Lizzie Borden.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview published last week, Ian reeled off a list of names that season five could explore, revealing that serial killer Dennis Rader – known to true crime followers by his pseudonym BTK – was one that had been “talked about” in the past.
“[He] is a fascinating one”, Ian noted, before disclosing that Ted Bundy, Gary Ridgway (the so-called Green River Killer) and even Luigi Mangione were subjects that had also been tossed around behind the scenes.
Ryan Murphy has already ruled out the idea of a Monster season hooked on Ted Bundy’s crimes, claiming that his story doesn’t provide enough of a fresh commentary on American culture and society.
