The Leftovers has returned to HBO with its second season, and the man behind the series has been out a lot in recent weeks talking about the new season and what he has planned for the future.

Fans of this HBO series can relax a bit and not worry about it being cancelled too much. It appears that HBO and Damon Lindelof both see a future for the series – a future that could take the series through five seasons.

Before season two premiere, Lindelof spoke about what he had in mind for the series in an interview with Assignment X. He is definitely looking ahead to season three, but HBO is interested in his ideas for more, according to him.

“I’ve adopted the [Vince] Gilligan model. I think a show like LOST, that was so mystery-based, it required a certain degree of planning ahead, having the answers to the mysteries, understanding that there might be some improvisation along the way, but it would have been irresponsible to proceed without a road map, even if you decided to deviate from it. THE LEFTOVERS, I’m much more comfortable saying, “We’re going to take it one episode at a time.” The collaborative nature of the show, the other writers, the directors, certainly the actors all have a fair amount of input, but we watch what they do and it inspires us. But I do think that, particularly when we told HBO that we wanted to move the show geographically in its second season, they were like, ‘Is this something that you’re going to do every year?’ Like, ‘Is it going to be THE WIRE, where Season 2 is the docks and then Season 3 is Amsterdam and Season 4 is the school and Season 5 is the press?’ And we essentially had to say to them, ‘Well, if there was a Season 3, it would probably be this.'”

Of course, HBO would need to pick up the series for a third season and more beyond that for Lindelof’s vision to play out. Season two premiered with a huge drop from the series premiere last year, but the last episode picked up big numbers from the previous two episodes. HBO will likely take a look at The Leftovers ratings as the season continues to progress.

Would you watch five seasons of The Leftovers? Tell us what you think.