Hulu's 'Future Man' Could Be Renewed For Season 2 So Soon

Hulu is taking a trip back — and forward — in time in their new series Future Man. The series is a science fiction adventure starring The Hunger Games' Josh Hutcherson as a janitor and video game savant. He becomes the world champion player of a popular game that turns out to be a secretly implanted recruiting tool for an army of resistors in a pandemic-ravaged future world. The characters hope that by the end of the series, Hutcherson's "Future Man" will save the world, but will Future Man return for Season 2?

UPDATE: On Jan. 8, Hulu announced in a press release that Future Man will return for Season 2 with 13 more episodes. An exact air date is unknown, but Hulu tends to space things a year apart, so it's possible that it will get an November 2018 premiere.

EARLIER: It's far too early to tell, given the show's premiere (it drops on Hulu on Nov. 14) has yet to even garner much critical or commercial attention. The show was just released, so there hasn't been a chance for much reaction, and while certain sci-fi shows have become huge hits in recent years, like Stranger Things, Rick & Morty, and Black Mirror, only time will tell for this one.

Back in September 2016, Hulu picked up a full 13 episode season of Future Man, but it's taken until now for the series to debut. That's a long production cycle, suggesting that even if Future Man is renewed right away, it could be over a year before the series is capable of returning. And, frankly, it could be longer. The series takes place in multiple time periods, including the past, is filled with CGI effects and stunts, and has many successful, in-demand artists behind and in front of the camera. Executive producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are two of Hollywood's most successful comedic writers, who will certainly have more projects to pay attention to in the next year.

If the series is renewed, it’s also possible that the show’s second season will go in a different creative direction. After all, the 1980s films that Future Man is based on generally end with the protagonist finally saving the world. So, it's possible that if the show returns, it will have a different framing device, take place in a different time period, or add new characters, and a new mission for the time travelers to accomplish. While they certainly wrap things up when the credits roll, most of these '80s sci-fi classics have at least one sequel, so Future Man 2 could be heading for Hulu sometime in the next year, with the audience musing over a big cliffhanger. It's also possible that the series will avert the typical ending and instead deliver some form of twist on the "chosen one" cliche, perhaps by giving Eliza Coupe's Tiger a bigger role, or making Elias Kronish's herpes cure just one part of the apocalyptic future they need to rescue.

While it's still too early to know if Future Man will be back, you might find out sooner than you think. All 13 episodes will be released at once, something that's become more and more frequent lately, between different streaming services and, increasingly, some cable networks dropping an entire season's worth of episodes in a single day. It's compressed the amount of time spent talking about any one show, and it has compressed the amount of time spent waiting for a critical consensus to form. Unlike Netflix, Hulu doesn't yet have a reputation for renewing series right away, but when their Emmy Award-winning original The Handmaid's Tale debuted to huge acclaim, they did renew it just a week after the series premiere, so if Future Man is treated to a similarly big reception — and it's worth noting, The Handmaid's Tale only premiered with three episodes, while Future Man will have all thirteen available right away — then fans could be treated to some great news right away.