Damon Lindelof Discusses LOST and How It Was Only Supposed to Last 3 Seasons

Over the past few months I’ve been re-watching the series Lost again with my kids, and it’s been enjoyable! I’ve only seen the series once, so going through it 10 years after it came to an end has been fun.

During a recent interview with Collider, Damon Lindelof talked about the series and revealed that Lost was originally only supposed to be three seasons, but when the show became a huge hit, ABC didn’t want it to end. Lindelof explains:

“I’m not trying to be diplomatic, I’m trying to give you the most accurate answer the way that I remember it, which is the conversations about wanting the show to end began as early as the pilot. One of the notes that we were getting back from ABC was ‘When are you gonna resolve these mysteries? And once you resolve these mysteries, why will people keep watching the show?’ And Level One of that was, ‘Well we’re gonna be introducing new mysteries as we go. So hopefully for every one that we answer, we’ve set up a new compelling mystery. If we get that balance right, they’re not gonna stack up.’ I think that we can both agree that we did not get that balance right.”

As you know, Lost did bring up a ton of interesting story elements and questions that needed answering, and Lindelof was hoping to wrap it all up in three seasons, but obviously that didn’t happen:

“Lost was like, ‘What’s in the hatch? What’s up with the monster? Who’s the original Sawyer? How did Locke get in the wheelchair? What is the nature of the island? Why does it appear to be moving? Who are the Others?’ There were all of these compelling mysteries and so we were saying, ‘We wanna have this stuff answered by the end of Season 1, this stuff answered by the end of Season 2, and then the show basically ends after about three years.’ That was the initial pitch, and they were not even hearing it. They looked at particularly me — Carlton came on about midway through Season 1 and he joined the chorus of me — but they were just like, ‘Do you understand how hard it is to make a show that people want to watch? And people like the show? So why would we end it? You don’t end shows that people are watching.’”

Lindelof went on to explain that during the second season, he and Cuse met with the network to discuss how they wanted to end the series with a third season, but the network still wouldn’t budge. Lindelof and Cuse were going to end up leaving the series after the third season, but they managed to work things out.

“Neither side blinked, so we agreed to sign a one-year extension — Carlton and I — with the understanding that we’d be leaving at the end of the third season and someone else would be running the show. Right at the same time Alias had ended, so Lost absorbed a number of the fantastic Alias writers including Drew Goddard, who had already written some episodes of Lost in the second season, and Jeff Pinkner, who is incredible, was gonna kind of be the heir apparent for Season 3.”

When ABC finally agreed to bring the series to an end they wanted it to run for 10 Seasons! But in the end, they ended ending the show after six. Lindelof and Cuse had quite the journey on this series and trying to bring it to an end. He talks a lot more about the series and bringing it to an end in the interview, so if you want to learn a few other details click here.

I know a lot of people didn’t like the way that Lost came to an end, but at least it was a fun ride!