Staying Lost for another three years

ABC is announcing a commitment to Lost for another three seasons, according to the New York Times. “We have always envisioned Lost as a show with a beginning, middle and end,” executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse said in a statement, which was released over the weekend to The Hollywood Reporter and to the rest of the news media on Monday. “By officially announcing exactly when that ending will be, the audience will now have the security of knowing that the story will play out as we’ve intended.”

This assumes, of course, that no cast member becomes suddenly unavailable due to death, contract disputes, or long-term incarceration.

After the current season the remainder of the series will play out in three 16-episode stretches, with each season’s episodes being broadcast over consecutive weeks without interruption. By spreading the remaining episodes over three seasons instead of two, however, the network and its ABC Television Studio unit, which produces the show, will ease the production requirements, which in the past have resulted in the show’s convoluted broadcast schedule. Think of it as a Sopranos thing.

Of course, with a shortened schedule, we have to ask: Does this mean Damon Lindelof will now have enough time to finish writing Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk?