The fate of The Missing might be up in the air - but the men behind BBC One's gripping thriller are already at work on their next project.

Rellik - from writers Harry and Jack Williams - is a six-part murder mystery with a difference: it tells the story backwards.

(Did you spot that Rellik is 'killer' backwards? Well, it is.)

Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images

[Above: Harry and Jack Williams]

"It's very dark - but it's much more heightened, it's not the grim realism of The Missing," Harry told Digital Spy. "It's a much more noirish thriller - told in reverse - which is even more of a headf**k than The Missing's dual timelines. I don't know why we do it to ourselves!"

Rellik is being directed by Sam Luther (Luther, Fortitude), with Jack Williams describing it as "a bit more [David] Fincher-esque, a bit more graphic novel".

"I think tonally it'll feel quite different to anything we've done before, which is quite exciting," he said. "It's very dark - very, very dark indeed."

Related: The Missing might not get a third series - but a Baptiste spin-off could happen instead

The writers also revealed that Rellik could become a returning series... but as an American Horror Story-style anthology.

"I don't think it would be the same characters again," Harry said. "Because of the reverse-ness of it all, it'd have to be a closed-ended thing."

"Yeah, because we go backwards in time, we play out every aspect of the characters we've got," agreed Jack. "But if we found another way of telling a story backwards, it could be a great launching pad for a format or an anthology."

Rellik will air on BBC One in the UK and on Cinemax in the US.

The Missing series 2 is released on DVD on December 26. The Series 1 & 2 box-set will also be available on the same date.

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