OUTER BANKS Prequel KILDARE Is Coming Together at Netflix

The Pogues may be heading out on their final adventure, but Netflix may not be finished digging around Kildare Island just yet.

As Outer Banks prepares to wrap its five-season run, creators Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke are developing a prequel that would take fans back 20 years and explore one of the most important pieces of the show's mythology: how Kildare Island became divided between the working-class Pogues and wealthy Kooks.

The potential Netflix prequel, which has been referred to as Kildare, has reportedly entered formal development and is gaining momentum. The idea has actually been kicking around for a few years, with Jonas Pate discussing the concept in interviews going back to 2023.

With Outer Banks coming to an end, the creators have finally had more time to turn that idea into an actual series.

“We’re working on the script. We’re working hard on it with our awesome partners from Netflix, and we’re just trying to get all of it as good as it can be.”

Rather than simply recreating the treasure-hunting formula with a younger group of characters, Kildare would dig into the history of the island itself.

From the beginning, Outer Banks has been built around two very different worlds. The Pogues come from The Cut, while the Kooks occupy the wealthy Figure Eight neighborhood. That class conflict has fueled rivalries, romances, betrayals, and plenty of bad decisions throughout the series.

The prequel would go back to the parents' generation and reveal how that divide began. “It really is the story of how the island split — and it’s particularly relevant in our country right now — how it split into the haves and have-nots, how the Kooks and the Pogues started,” Pate explained. “How did this rift start?”

Burke added: “And seen through the stories of some of the characters you know and some new characters. But they’re 20 years before, so it’s the parents’ generation.”

That will be an interesting direction for an Outer Banks prequel because the original series has already given the creative team plenty of family history to play with.

The show began with Pogue leader John B, played by Chase Stokes, and his friends Pope, played by Jonathan Daviss, JJ, played by Rudy Pankow, and Kiara, played by Madison Bailey. Kiara technically came from the Kook side of Kildare, but chose to spend her time with the Pogues.

Season 1 also introduced the romance between John B and Sarah Cameron, played by Madelyn Cline, which added another layer to the class rivalry. Sarah's brother Rafe, played by Drew Starkey, and her then-boyfriend Topper, played by Austin North, were among the Kooks frequently clashing with John B and his crew.

Over the course of the series, we've also met John B and JJ's fathers, Pope and Kiara's parents, Topper's mother and grandfather, and Sarah and Rafe's father.

The Cameron family history could be especially interesting territory for Kildare, since their father originally grew up in The Cut before building his fortune and moving into the Kook lifestyle in Figure Eight.

Season 4 opened up even more possibilities when the series revealed the truth about JJ's birth parents, including his late mother and her connection to a wealthy local family whose history stretched back centuries.

That gives Kildare a chance to introduce younger versions of familiar characters while bringing in new people who helped shape the island long before John B and the Pogues started hunting for treasure.

Netflix hasn't officially announced the series, and a representative for the streamer declined to comment. For now, the project remains in development.

Also, Netflix doesn't automatically turn every successful show into a big franchise. The company has explored multiple Stranger Things spinoff ideas, but only an animated project moved ahead.

An Uncle Fester spinoff from Wednesday has spent roughly three years in development without receiving a green light, while a proposed Virgin River prequel didn't move forward.

So Kildare isn't guaranteed to happen simply because Outer Banks has been a hit. What it does have going for it is a premise connected directly to the foundation of the original story instead of feeling like an excuse to keep the franchise alive.

The prequel is also one of several projects Pate, Pate, and Burke are developing under their overall Netflix deal.

If Kildare eventually gets the green light, going back two decades to see exactly how the Pogues and Kooks became bitter rivals could be a fun way to keep exploring this world while giving fans a very different kind of Outer Banks story.

Source: Deadline