Childhood’s End was never in the race for Season 2 given its ‘one and done’ miniseries format, but executive producer Matthew Graham has reflected on the ending of the series, telling EW:
Well, [Childhood’s End author] Arthur C. Clarke had a great quote: He said, “We’re the first era of man ever to genuinely try and predict our own future, which is ironic, because we very well may not have one.” No, I don’t see it as doom, actually. I think the initial reaction is to feel it’s doom. I think it’s about acceptance, and I don’t think we should take it literally; I don’t think the book is about: One day the world will end. I think it’s about: One day you will end. You are going to end, and within a couple of generations, people won’t know your name; they won’t remember your name. I don’t know the name of my great-grandparents, and I certainly don’t know the name of my great-great grandparents. That’s rather profound and rather challenging, but it’s about acceptance.
Whether you have a religious faith or you don’t, it’s not really about saying there’s no God or there is a God. What we do know for certain is that we’re very small in a very big universe, and one day we’re going to die. And when you die, effectively, that is the end of the world — it’s the end of the world for you. So I think he’s writing about that; I think he’s writing about death. And he was a very cheeky man, so when he was interviewed, I think he liked to wind people up and say, “We’re all going to die, the world’s going to explode.” I think he quite liked playing those games with people. But I think ultimately the book is about something more intimate.
Would you have liked to have seen Childhood’s End adapted into an ongoing series with multiple season potential, or was the miniseries format about right?
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