Presumed Innocent season 1 was one of the shows of the summer in 2024, as fans streamed the Jake Gyllenhaal crime drama on Apple TV Plus. Sure enough, Apple TV Plus announced that there would be more Presumed Innocent coming, announcing a season 2 ahead of the first season’s finale.
Yet, after what happened with the Presumed Innocent season 1 ending, basically wrapping up the story, it’s been pretty quiet about what is going on with Presumed Innocent season 2? Will Gyllenhaal be back? Will the show focus on one of the supporting characters?
Well, we finally have some answers, as Presumed Innocent creator David E. Kelley has been making the rounds with various outlets and sharing the first bit of details on Presumed Innocent season 2, as well as a fascinating tidbit on how they settled on the twist ending for season 1 (FYI, some SPOILERS ahead).
For those that need a reminder, Presumed Innocent starred Gyllenhaal as a prosecutor who becomes the main suspect in the murder of his coworker with whom he was having an affair (Renate Reinsve). The series was based on a novel by Scott Turow, which was previously adapted into a movie starring Harrison Ford. The TV series also starred Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, O-T Fagbenle, Peter Sarsgaard, Chase Infiniti, Kingston Rumi Southwick and Elizabeth Marvel.
With Presumed Innocent becoming a streaming hit, demand started to pop up for a second season, which was not what Kelley was planning, as he told The Wrap.
“There was no thinking of taking the show to year two. We didn’t really see, creatively, a path going forward with this particular franchise that wouldn’t feel derivative,” Kelley said.
So rather than continue the story of Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich, Presumed Innocent season 2 is turning into an anthology series, that features an entirely new case and new set of characters, though once again based on a book — Jo Murray’s debut novel Dissection of a Murder, according to The Wrap, which is scheduled to be published in spring 2026.
The Wrap added that production on Presumed Innocent season 2 is expected to begin in the fall and that Kelley has said that two episodes of the new season have been written.
While fans now have a little more information to be excited about in regards to the future of the show, Kelley also recently spoke with Variety and shared a fascinating bit about season 1.
In the original 1990 movie starring Ford, the murderer is Rusty’s wife, Barbara, played by Negga in the TV series. According to Kelley, that was initially the plan, adding that part of Negga’s interest in the role was Barbara being the murderer.
However, early in the writing process, Kelley began to wonder if he should stick to the previously crafted ending or find a way to flip the story on its head. They started production keeping Barbara as the murderer, but then something flipped for Kelley.
“The humanity that Ruth is bringing to this character, that’s a big leap for me to believe that she was able to kill somebody and then lie about it for eight episodes,” Kelley told Variety.
That led Kelley to consider Rusty and Ruth’s daughter, Jaden, as the new killer, saying, “We felt we could stay true to the character, true to the underlying material, and then provide a wallop of twist at the end.”
After seeing the new direction of the script, Negga and all signed off, and they set about providing a twist to a story that had been around for nearly 40 years.
There is no release info for Presumed Innocent season 2 at this time, but the new season will once again stream exclusively on Apple TV Plus.
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