EXCLUSIVE: Stephen King adaptation Mr. Mercedes will be back for a ten-episode second season on August 22, AT&T Audience Network told Deadline during the show’s panel at The Contenders Emmys. Director Jack Bender joined stars Brendan Gleeson, Harry Treadaway, Kelly Lynch and Holland Taylor to discuss the series’ first run.

Speaking with Deadline’s Joe Utichi, Bender offered his first impressions of Mr. Mercedes. “When Stephen first sent me the galleys, I was thrilled,” the director said. “He had never written a detective novel, and I found it fascinating that Stephen was writing this time about the monsters inside the people, as opposed to the monsters outside the people.”

Not getting into specific details about Season 2, the cast instead discussed the complexities of the series’ characters, including a deranged serial killer (Treadaway) and the detective (Gleeson) who is set on bringing him down.

For Gleeson, what was so compelling about Mr. Mercedes was the series’ empathy in its full, human portrayal of even the most complicated, troubled characters. “When I talked to Jack and David Kelly, who I think is probably the best writer working at the moment in terms of human relationships, it was all about the inner conflict going on with everybody,” the actor explained. “Where we can be monsters, and kind of angels, all in one package.”