After five months of silence, the creators of the popular true-crime podcast Serial have announced that it will in fact be coming back for a second — and third — season.
The second season will begin in fall 2015, and the third in the following spring.
Other than these basic facts, the creators, Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, haven't revealed much about the upcoming seasons.
In a newsletter to Serial fans, Koenig said tantalizingly, "Sorry — we can't tell you details about the new stories yet." But she added, "They're very different from Season One, but no less interesting to us."
Fortunately, fans might be able to squeeze some more information out of the tight-lipped reporter this summer as she and Snyder tour the U.S.
They'll be talking about the first season and answering questions from the audience in Texas, Connecticut, Virginia, Ohio, and New York.
The newsletter also gave some updates on the reopened Adnan Syed case and Koenig's personal feelings about it.
Before the last episode of Serial's first season, Syed — who was convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, 15 years ago — was granted an appeal.
Since the podcast ended, Asia McClain, a key witness who says she was dissuaded from testifying in the original case, has testified in Syed's defense, and part of Syed's case was remanded to a lower court.
Koenig also wrote about her feelings on the case, and whether her podcast has influenced the court in Syed's favor.
What's hard to know is whether all the outside attention to even the smallest wrinkles in Adnan's case has influenced the Court of Special Appeals to take this unusual step.
I really hate to speculate about why a court makes any particular ruling. I don't presume to know the judges' minds, or ascribe extra-judicial motives to their rulings. But clearly the appellate judges are aware the public is watching, and while I don't imagine they'd order anything they didn't think was just, I do think it's possible that they're being extra careful to make this process as transparent as they can, so that the public will fully understand their ultimate decision.