Manifest fans, now is the time to pop that champagne and rejoice, as the series is confirmed to be returning to Netflix. With a subtle nod to the pivotal Flight 828 in the series, the streaming giant Netflix made an official announcement on August 28 and confirmed that the show is being resurrected for a fourth and final season and will officially take off again on November 4, 2022.
And before you get discouraged hearing about “only one more season,” know that it will be enormous in two volumes. Twenty episodes, divided into two halves of 10 episodes each, will make up the last season, knotting all the loose ends of the premise.
Fans went into a frenzy on social media after NBC opted not to renew the missing-plane drama series with the underlying theme of faith for a fourth season, considering the huge cliffhanger it ended on. The move was a last-minute decision for the network because cast contracts would have expired the next day and there were plenty of complications to bringing everyone on board.
It was also unexpected since the show was in the Netflix Top 10 with strong viewership and was increasing in popularity as more viewers binge-watched the series for the first time. In August 2021, Manifest broke its streaming-ratings records with over a billion views a week for six straight weeks. And by September, it was the third show in Netflix history to sit in its Top 10 for 100 consecutive days—ever.
Now, who can blame the fans considering the amount of love they showered on the show? After trending #SaveManifest on Twitter, fan campaigns, and all the internet spectacles, the once-cancelled NBC show will make a triumphant comeback for one last time as the much-awaited season 4 unveils the lingering mystery.
Here’s everything we know about Manifest season four.
Synopsis:
Here’s Netflix’s official synopsis of the season:
“Two years after the brutal murder of Grace turned their lives upside down, the Stone family is in shambles as a devastated Ben continues to mourn his wife and search for his kidnapped daughter, Eden. Consumed by his grief, Ben has stepped down from his role as co-captain of the lifeboat, leaving Michaela to captain it alone, a near impossible feat with the passengers’ every move now being monitored by a government registry. As the Death Date draws closer and the passengers grow desperate for a path to survival, a mysterious passenger arrives with a package for Cal that changes everything they know about Flight 828 and will prove to be the key to unlocking the secret of the Callings in this compelling, mind-bending, and deeply emotional journey.”
Release Date:
As announced by Netflix with a brand new poster, Manifest season four will be divided into two parts—just like Stranger Things—each comprising 10 episodes, with the first part releasing on November 4, 2022. The show’s creator, Jeff Rake, will condense his three intended seasons’ worth of story plot into 20 episodes. In an interview with EW, Rake stated: “The endgame won’t change at all… I am absolutely confident that 20 episodes [will] give me enough time to tell the entirety of the story as I always intended to.” It will be interesting to observe how his ingenuity, creativity, and the show’s incisive editing pan out and how the audience responds.
Cast:
Almost all the cast, including leads Josh Dallas and Melissa Roxburgh, are returning to the show’s final chapter, at least, the ones who have survived at the end of season three, according to Deadline.
The media outlet also reported that actress Athena Karkanis, who plays the character Grace Stone, will not come back as her character died in the season three finale. Jack Messina, who played Cal Stone, will also bid adieu to the series as his character, who unexpectedly aged, is being replaced by an older actor. In a surprise twist for the audience, Ty Doran will take over the role.
We’ll also meet a few new characters in season four, including Kyle Boyd, who was a passenger on Flight 828, alongside the key characters we know and love; Henry Kim, another Flight 828 passenger who got detailed in Singapore upon his return; and two more characters named Tela and June, whose backstories are yet to be revealed. We’ll also meet a couple of smaller characters, reportedly named Captain Kevin Fahey, Detective Price, and “the Eden twins,” according to a tweet shared by the Renew Manifest, but there are no further details about these characters so far.
What To Expect?
There’s no doubt that it’s best to prepare for the unexpected with Manifest. There can always be curveballs or twists coming that you might never see. In the trailer, Netflix gave us a thrilling preview of what to expect; in one instance, Michaela searches the shipyard for who knows what, leaving her shocked by her discoveries.
The budget for each episode of the last season has also increased exponentially, according to What’s On Netflix—from $1 million to $4 or $5 million, which will be great for incredible production. Josh Dallas shared in an interview with Netflix Life that there will be a time-lapse of two years. “We begin the next season two years from where we left off in season 3. So we’ve moved ahead in time. Sometimes I think—and of course, I haven’t gotten to the end—that he could be the agent of the apocalypse, the downfall of all of this because of the way he is so tenacious…The first part of the season is not going to be easy.”
Season four of Manifest will be released on August 28, 2022.
Words by Khushboo Malhotra
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