When Mike Colter got the call that Evil had been canceled, he had to sit down.
“It was a shock,” the star of the CBS/Paramount+ series told Decider in a recent interview. “My team called me, and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I just had to sit down for a bit, because it’s such a big part of my world.”
Created by Robert and Michelle King, Evil is a supernatural drama that first aired on CBS in 2019, before moving to the network’s streaming service, Paramount+, in 2021. Colter stars in the show, alongside Katja Herbers and Aasif Mandvi, as one of three individuals hired by the Catholic Church to investigate supernatural incidents. But after Season 4 aired in May 2024, Paramount+ opted not to renew the series.
“We always thought we had about six seasons in us,” Colter told Decider. “But the [writer’s and actor’s] strike didn’t help. We went through COVID, and the strike, and we still were able to get four seasons out of it. I think we probably would have six seasons, for sure. It would have been just as we planned.”
Instead, the streamer afforded Evil four “bonus” Season 4 episodes, which would serve as a shortened version of what the creators had originally intended to be a fifth season. The last of those bonus episodes, titled “Fear of the End,” will release on Paramount+ this Thursday, August 22.
When asked if fans can expect the series finale to tie up all the loose ends, Colter replied, “No, we won’t wrap everything up. There will always be more thread to leave unraveled, so there’s some place to go.”
Should fans expect to be left on a cliffhanger, then?
“I wouldn’t say a cliffhanger. There will be a new chapter that will be open,” Colter said. “I feel like we leave it in a place where there’s potential to continue on with the storyline. It’s a nice, interesting way to end it, but not end it. I think fans will be like, ‘That’s fitting. But now I really want to see where the rest of this continues to go.’ It’s a perfect ending, I think, for where we are.”
Colter said he hasn’t yet given up hope that another network may pick up the show and continue the story. “There’s always a chance. In this day and age, years go by and people come back with stuff. I don’t think anything is ever completely off the table.”
And, the actor admitted, “I think we all are still licking our wounds, because we enjoyed the show so much. But we just have to look forward and see what happens. We had a great run.”
