Spoilers for the Presumed Innocent novel and Apple TV+ series will be found below.
The Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Presumed Innocent was intended as a limited series for Apple TV+. However, limited series tend to turn into ongoing series when streaming numbers are too successful (and this quickly became the streaming service’s “most watched drama” in the five years since launch) to resist going back for more.
Actually, that move was publicized by the tech giant’s streaming service a few weeks before the first season came to a conclusion, so viewers couldn’t yet guess whether the finale would match up to the book or head into a different twist, which it did. And that twist, apparently, was written when nobody knew that this series would continue.
To briefly recap (because if you are reading this, then you have surely seen the finale), bad prosecutor Rusty (Gyllenhaal) was acquitted in both the book and the TV show. Yet the series changed the book’s ending, which involved Rusty’s wife, Barbara, killing Carolyn and staging the murder to look like the crime scene of a case that Rusty and Carolyn had worked on together. In contrast, the series saw the murder committed by Jaden (daughter of Rusty and Barbara), with the crime scene staging (involving bondage) being done by Rusty, who thought he was covering for Barbara’s actions.
The modus operandi for Jaden was that, for whatever reason, Carolyn had confessed that she was pregnant with Rusty’s child. And without evaluating whether any of this makes sense — the Scott Turow novel saw Rusty decide to keep Barbara’s guilt a secret, and Carolyn’s murder was never officially solved in the eyes of the law — the bigger question is this:
What Do We Know About A Potential Season 2 Of Presumed Innocent?
We know that a second season will happen, and that J.J., Abrams, David E. Kelley, and Jake Gyllenhaal will produce. We do not know if Gyllenhaal will appear again, or if the second season will be based upon another Turow novel. If that is the case, then there is another book, Innocent, which takes place 20 years later on the Rusty/Barbara timeline and involves her death. In the alternative, producers could choose to adapt another Turow book that includes characters from this book, but Apple TV+’s press release (on the renewal) only vaguely refers to a “brand new case” for the next season.
Abrams did provide some insight to Deadline while declining to clarify the second season plan:
“We discussed the possibility of a second season during production, but then Apple brought it up to us in post. Nothing was ever shot to set up a second season. Our focus was telling the story of Carolyn’s murder and Rusty’s trial, and wrapping that up at the end of the first season.”
In other words, hang tight, and hopefully, more information shall follow.
