Delivering arguably the most divisive TV series finale of all time, Lost left us with heaps of questions when it wrapped in 2010.
What was "the sickness"? Why was Libby in the mental hospital with Hurley? Were 'the numbers' actually just totally pointless? What was the actual deal with Walt?
Nine years later though and one question is being asked more than all the others: when is the inevitable reboot going to crash-land on our screens?
'The End' – or is it?
Not even two years had passed since 'The End' aired when series co-creator Damon Lindelof first addressed the possibility of a revival. Lindelof, also a producer on JJ Abrams' Star Trek movie reboots, said in May of 2012, "It would be hypocritical for me to say I'm going to [reboot] Star Trek but I don't want anyone to touch Lost.
"It's been two years and we told the story we wanted to tell. I do feel like the world has not seen the end of Lost but I'm not going to have any involvement."
Lindelof's comments quickly sent fan and media speculation into overdrive, with conversation turning to a possible spin-off film. In November 2012, actor Jorge Garcia - lovable Hurley - told The Huffington Post that he would "consider" starring in a Lost movie, if the script was up to scratch.
Revival – or reboot?
Though these early rumours came to nothing, ex-showrunner Carlton Cuse reiterated his colleague Lindelof's comments in a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly. Though he insisted that the show's creative team "made no contingency for a sequel or a spin-off" at the time, Cuse admitted that he expected Lost to eventually return in some form.
"[The series finale is] called 'The End' for that reason," he said. "We so definitively had decided that this was the end of our journey with the Lost franchise.
"It is the end of the story that we wanted to tell and we had no plans to go back and revisit it. [But] I think it's likely that at some point, ABC will want to reboot Lost because it's a valuable franchise, [and[ I do not begrudge ABC the opportunity to do something more with the franchise."
Later that year, Cuse spoke in more depth about a possible revival to Digital Spy, speculating on how exactly another iteration might work. "Disney owns the franchise, it made them a lot of money, [so] it's hard to imagine it will just sit there idly forever," he said.
"It's like the Narnia chronicles. There are seen books, they were all written by CS Lewis, but they all visit Narnia at different times and different configurations and different ways.
"Someone is going to come up with a way to tell another Lost story. I think it's inevitable."
Picking up the narrative a few years later, in 2017 Lindelof backed the idea that any new version of Lost would have to be a reboot with a new cast, rather than a direct continuation.
"Those characters not only died, but we showed you their experience post-death," he told Entertainment Weekly. "Any new take on Lost will probably have to feature new characters, as it should."
Though the original series featured a large ensemble cast, featuring a grand total of 28 series regulars across its six seasons, one actor has definitely ruled themselves out from taking part in a direct sequel.
"There's a rumour every year that they are going to reboot Lost," Evangeline Lilly (Kate) told Entertainment Weekly just last year. "The thing about reboots and remakes is that I don't like them in general, period. I feel like it's just tainting something that's precious."
But is ABC actually interested?
Of course, all this speculation and guesswork amounts to precious little if ABC and Disney aren't interested in bringing Lost back. Though Lindelof and Cuse seemed convinced that a new cast of characters would eventually find themselves stranded on that magical island, the network that first brought the series to our screens remained notably silent... until last year.
In January 2018, then-ABC president Channing Dungey insisted that they'd "not had any official discussions" about reviving the series, but acknowledged that she was open to the possibility.
"It's something that's on a list of, 'Wouldn't that be great if…' – but at this point it's only at that place," Dungey confirmed.
Though Dungey departed her position in late 2018, ABC programming chief Karey Burke revealed in February 2019 that enthusiasm still existed for the project, saying, "I would like that very much – that is a reboot I would be interested in seeing."
Cast availability wouldn't be an issue if the Lost reboot went for an all-new line-up of characters, so right now, pinning down the right creative team – one with a fresh, adventurous take on what the new Lost could be – would appear to be the biggest obstacle to bringing the show back.
As for *where* exactly the reboot would land, ABC is absolutely an option, but with Disney readying to launch its own streaming service, Disney+, later this year, Lost would be another seriously heavyweight franchise, alongside Marvel and Star Wars, that would help this new platform deal a serious blow to established rivals like Netflix.
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