Starz has announced that its critically acclaimed limited series The Missing will be returning for a second outing of drama, grief, and people not staying where you put them. The BBC-co-produced series, which airs a month later in the U.S. than in the U.K., concluded this week in England with a trailer promising that “The Missing will return.” (It also featured one of those little toy monkeys with the banging cymbals, the ultimate harbingers of ill tidings or Stephen King stories.)
Having concluded the time-shifted story of young Oliver Hughes’ disappearance and its effect on his family, the second series of The Missing will follow in the footsteps of serialized anthologies like American Horror Story and True Detective, shifting focus to a new case and away from the distraught parents played by James Nesbitt and Frances O’Connor. The trailer is light on details, but the somber voiceover does suggest a theme: “To lose somebody can destroy a person. But to find them again, when so much has passed… well. Sometimes, that can be worse.” And given that said voiceover is dourly delivered by series star Tcheky Karyo’s character, Detective Julien Baptiste, it suggests that at least part of the first season’s cast will remain.
Starz announced that series writers Harry and Jack Williams will also be returning for the second series, which will once again focus on the immediate aftermath of a missing persons case, as well as the lingering effects several years later. U.S. viewers who can’t wait until Starz airs The Missing’s final episode on Jan. 3 can watch the trailer, in all its monkey-cymbal-banging glory, here.