Wyatt Russell teases fans with info on Lodge 49’s never-made third season

Lodge 49, one of the best, funniest, and most endearing shows of the last five years, may be gone forever, but star Wyatt Russell is still out here making fans salivate with tidbits about the show’s never-produced third season. Appearing on the Lodge 49 fan podcast Pod 49, the actor told the hosts what a third season of the canceled series would’ve been like. And, boy, does it sound like a trip.

According to Russell, the abandoned third season would’ve begun with Dud (Wyatt Russell) waking up during the Crimean War, with his spirit inhabiting the body of Harwood Fritz Merrill, the founder of the show’s Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx.

“The show was supposed to be four seasons, and that’s the four elements. You got water, you got fire,” Russell said. “What was happening was that fall through the door was not supposed to be that way. He was supposed to wake up in the—the way [Lodge 49 creator] Jim Gavin pitched it. I feel like I’m pitching Jim’s secrets. Maybe I’ll say it so someone will say that’s a great idea let’s do it.”

“His idea was that [Dud] wakes up in the next season in the Crimean War, and he is in Harwood Fritz Merrill’s body and experiencing war and experiencing what Harwood Fritz Merrill experienced in that horrible, disastrous thing that brought him to want to create connection and create the lodge. So his PTSD and his own mental health issues from the war were going to explain through Harwood Fritz Merrill’s pain was born this connective place.”

It’s hard to imagine how this would’ve played out, but Russell assures listeners, it would’ve been expensive. Of course, the show’s budget and a lack of interest from the general public led to its cancellation. Nevertheless, Russell still hopes that he’ll be able to play Dud again sometime in the next 15 years.

“It was a shame that we didn’t get to do it. I’m totally bummed out about it. I always weirdly hold out hope that maybe I’ll be 50 years old and all of a sudden, one day, someone will call and they’ll go, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about doing a third season of Lodge?’ Absolutely!”

AMC canceled Lodge 49 2019 after two seasons. The show’s cast, crew, and vocal cult following sought a network to pick up the series to no avail. Eventually, Gavin told fans that a third season would not be happening.

The whole conversation is a must-listen for Lodge 49 fans. Russell tracks the show’s long journey to the small screen, the research that went into playing a twin, and the intricacies of the Lodge set.