EXCLUSIVE: Epix’s noir drama series Perpetual Grace, LTD will not be renewed for a second season but will get a proper ending. We have learned that the premium network is planning a short limited run as a followup to the first season of the Ben Kingsley and Jimmi Simpson-fronted drama. Talks are still in early stages, with the exact number of episodes TBD, sources stress.

While received very well by critics and fans, with 88% fresh rating from critics and 89% from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, the off-beat series did not find wide enough audience.

According to sources, Epix brass have remained high on the show, and while they felt the drama had run its course, given that it ended on an unresolved note, the network wanted to give its story closure.

The ten-part Perpetual Grace, LTD premiered in June 2019. It stars James (Simpson), a young grifter, as he attempts to prey upon Pastor Byron Brown (Kingsley), who turns out to be far more dangerous than James suspects. It turns out Byron and his wife Lillian, played by Jacki Weaver, known as Pa and Ma, have used religion to bilk hundreds of innocent people out of their life savings. Luis Guzman, Damon Herriman and Chris Conrad also star, while Terry O’Quinn, Kurtwood Smith and Timothy Spall recur.

Co-created by Steve Conrad and Bruce Terris, who write and showrun, it is exec produced by the pair alongside Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, and Steve Tisch. Conrad directed six episodes of the show, which is produced by MGM Television and Escape Artists, while James Whitaker directed the remaining episodes.

Conrad had said that while the crime drama contains remnants of the noir tone, it also bends the narrative with traditional neo-noir stories. “The characters often turn on each other pretty quickly and it becomes an everyman for themselves event. We’ve figured that the time that we share with the audience the demonstration will be that it is not material to succeeding or surviving. They’ll come to depend on each other pretty quickly. So, it doesn’t follow that noir engineering,” he said at last year’s summer TCA.

Two weeks ago, Epix unveiled its latest development slate, designed to draw more female viewers. It is working on a series adaptation of Ken Follett’s Elizabethan-era novel A Column Of Fire, The Winter King, a series adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s trilogy of Arthurian novels, from His Dark Materials producer Bad Wolf and Gibson Station, a dramedy set in 1984, from producer/writer/director Edward Burns.