‘Servant’ Season 3 Is Like ‘Night of the Living Dead’ Says M. Night Shyamalan
Servant is back on Apple TV+ for Season 3. And according to showrunner M. Night Shyamalan, fans can expect the creepiness factor to level up this season because it will feel a lot like Night of the Living Dead.
‘Servant’ Season 3 will feel like long-form horror
The last season of Servant unveiled Leanne’s (Nell Tiger Free) connection to a weird, but equally terrifying cult. She managed to escape the clutches of Aunt Josephine by stabbing her in the eye in the finale. But as Shyamalan teases, season 3 will find the nanny looking over her shoulder constantly.
“She is living under this paranoia for a long time that she’s inevitably going to get ramifications for what she did in Season 2,” he told TV Line. “You can’t leave the cult that she left, and so they’re going to come and get her. This kind of paranoia is delicious.”
From neighbors to delivery people, Leanne will assume everyone that comes near the Turner home is a cult member, the showrunner teased. And because of this paranoia and fear, he suggests the season will feel like the classic zombie movie, The Night of the Living Dead.
“I think Season 3 is very muscular because of that, and very scary,” Shyamalan said. “It almost feels like a lot of Season 3 is the classic genre thing of being in a house when things are trying to get in. Like Night of the Living Dead, but a long-form version.”
The showrunner says the larger story arc is almost biblical
Servant centers on Dorothy Turner (Lauren Ambrose), her brother Julian (Rupert Grint), and her husband Sean (Toby Kebbell). After accidentally leaving her baby in a hot car, Dorothy has blocked out memories of his death and adopts a doll to take his place. But when her new nanny, Leanne arrives with a flesh and blood child, Dorothy believes that is her son, Jericho.
However, the show has yet to explain who or what Leanne is. Sometimes, it feels like she’s just a girl brainwashed by a cult. But some events, like the basement floor cracking or lights going on the fritz suggest she might be something supernatural. Either way, Shyamalan reveals that the series’ story arc is much bigger than it seems.
“I love the balance of telling large-scale stories, Biblical-scale stories, but from a very restrained and restricted portal,” he told ComicBook.com. “I never will let go of that portal, but I don’t know, at the end of The Exorcist, if I needed more of the mythology.”
“It’s only what I could see through this family and this child and the mother. I could feel the larger mythology at work,” he continued. “And, hopefully, when we’re done telling the story, you’ll have that balance as well, that you can sense the larger story in a very satisfying way.”
When do new ‘Servant’ episodes air on Apple TV+?
Servant Season 3 hit Apple TV+ on Jan. 21. New episodes air weekly, every Friday. The 10-episode season concludes on March 25.
