MOIRA DEMOS When we were making Part 1, we were certainly not thinking there might be a Part 2. But once we finished, it was clear that the story wasn’t over. Steven Avery is a fighter and he’s saying right at the end of Part 1, “I’m going to keep on fighting.” So then the questions became to us, as filmmakers, What exactly is happening next? Is there something to cover? Is there something to point a camera at? And if so, can we gain access to that?

What convinced you that there was indeed something more to point a camera at?

LAURA RICCIARDI By the spring of 2016, we came to learn that Kathleen Zellner had decided to represent Steven and we thought that we would reach out to her and see if she would give us access to her process. We also spoke with Brendan Dassey’s attorneys Laura Nirider and Steve Drizin, whom we introduced in Episode 10 of Part 1 when they filed a federal habeas petition on Brendan’s behalf. So we thought that both cases would be very active.

DEMOS Part 2 is taking you into a new phase of the criminal justice process, the post-conviction phase, which for most people is a big black hole, not a part we have a very good understanding of. With Part 1, there were so many twists and turns, and nobody’s really there helping you understand what’s happening as you go through it. There’s a lot of ambiguity, and we were trying to get people to embrace that. At the same time, we really understood that people want to move out of ambiguity into answers.