Manifest showrunner Jeff Rake is trying to make a 2-hour movie to properly end the series. The supernatural TV series began airing on NBC in 2018. The show features  Melissa Roxburgh, Josh Dallas, Athena Karkanis, J. R. Ramirez, Luna Blaise, Jack Messina, Parveen Kaur, Matt Long, and Holly Taylor in its lead cast, with many of them playing passengers and crew members of the Montenegro Air Flight 828 who resurface after going missing in a supposed aviation accident 5 years ago. The passengers have no idea what they had been through, rather they assume that their trip from Jamaica to New York City was a standard journey. But when they land they get the shock of their lives, realizing that they had been away for so long. Gradually they begin making sense of what went so wrong, unravelling bits of the central sci-fi mystery every passing season.

After being renewed through season 3, Manifest's most recent iteration concluded earlier this month. But while the show's ending was, in all ways, explosive and thrilling, it did not exactly answer all questions about the series. As a result, it was expected that the show would return for a fourth season to tie up all loose ends. But last week NBC crushed the hopes for that when it announced that it had axed Manifest due to low ratings. Despite the cancellation, Rake remains determined to give fans full closure about Manifest's cliffhanger ending. He was earlier trying to get the series revived, but now it looks like he was opted for a different direction to end the show satisfyingly.

Related: All The Questions Manifest’s Cancellation Leaves Unanswered

According to a report by Entertainment Weekly, Rake is now looking to wrap up Manifest with a 2-hour long movie-style finale. The creator had originally intended for the show to run for six seasons, with plans for seasons 4, 5, 6 to serve as the climactic half of the story. But now, it may not be possible to carry on the show for 3 more seasons, so Rake is seeking to go the Deadwood way to persuasively wrap up Manifest. He is on a lookout for a platform that would fund a movie-length finale for his show, so he can at least deliver the sleek, to-the-point ending that he owes to Manifest's loyal audiences. Rake has some ideas to cut back the story and produce a two-hour-long ending on a modest budget, and he is hopeful that he'll find a fitting avenue to stream or broadcast that conclusion as well. Read what Rake said below.

Twenty days after we've premiered on Netflix, I've kind of moved away from the plan of finding a home for seasons 4, 5, and 6 of Manifest, even though I've always talked about Manifest being a six-season show. Back in the day, I laid out a six-season roadmap for NBC, and I'm halfway through. I had giant cliffhangers in the season 3 finale, so I had every intention to have three more seasons to slow-burn the back half of the story. I'm reading the writing on the wall that we may not find a home for three more seasons of the show, so I moved to plan B: Some platform would bankroll a feature or a movie finale, like we saw with Timeless, Firefly, and Deadwood. I just need a modest budget to tell the story. I am personally sketching out how to consolidate the back half of the series into a much more streamlined, cut-to-the-chase two-hour finale that would distill all of the hanging chads of the series. That's where my head is at. There is a huge appetite for people wanting to know what's that end of the story, what happened to the passengers, what ultimately happened to that airplane.

Manifest cast

Before Rake transitioned towards the idea of a finale movie, he had attempted to shop Manifest to other networks and streaming services. Netflix was among the top contenders, particularly since the show's first two seasons recently debuted there, and that too, to much success. But while the prospects appeared promising, the streaming giant ultimately passed on the chance to continue Manifest. After Netflix backed out, Warner Bros. also ended its efforts to find a new home for the show. Of course, now the chances for a Manifest revival are decidedly bleak. But at least the showrunner isn't giving up so easily.

When iconic shows end abruptly, it's common practice that they are followed by either a TV movie or special two-parters for the sake of narrative closure. Sense 8 and Timeless are two cases in point, and there are also several more. Thus it shouldn't be hard for Rake to get the same treatment for Manifest, after all the show was a proper NBC mainstay with a dedicated fanbase. It's even possible that NBC might itself extend an offer to Rake to allow him to finish his show satisfactorily, but if it does that, it'll need to do the same for all the other bubble shows like Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist that is also cancelled. At this point, launching a crowd-funding campaign may be a good idea. There is demonstrated enthusiasm among fans to see the end of Manifest, so they'd probably pitch in for efforts to get a fulfilling ending.

Next: What Manifest's Cal Change Could've Meant For Season 4

Source: Entertainment Weekly