Melissa Roxburgh was the first one to see it.
It was a trailer forManifest, now available to watch on the streaming platform.
“She said, ‘What is this?’
Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) and Ben Stone (Josh Dallas) are back at it in ‘Manifest’ season 4 sneak peek.Peter Kramer/Netflix
I had no idea,” Rake tells EW.
“No one had ever mentioned a thing to me aboutManifestpremiering on Netflix.
“Extraordinary and just nothing but gratitude,” Dallas remarks.
Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh) and Jared Vasquez (J.R. Ramirez) are back together… on a bench, at least, in ‘Manifest’ season 4.Peter Kramer/Netflix
“The reason we make these shows are for the people, for the fans.
Step 1: Rally the fans
The sequence of events was a bit more involved.
Rake had shows canceled before (The CW’sBeauty and the BeastandThe Tomorrow People, NBC’sThe Mysteries of Laura).
Josh Dallas is rocking “Ben’s grief beard” opposite Matt Long’s Zeke Landon in ‘Manifest’ season 4.Peter Kramer/Netflix
“There are telltale signs, usually involving a lot of silence,” he says.
“And that’s what happened all spring while we were finishing up production on season 3.”
Rake admitsManifestwasn’t doing so well in the ratings at this point in 2021.
“I was feeling a little bit pessimistic.
So when we got the news, it was not a shock to the system.”
Dallas had a similar reaction: “I remember being really sad, and I remember being shocked.
Then I remember that I’m an actor in Hollywood and this is show business.
It’s not always that the creative part and show business match up.
“When you’re the showrunner, you’re like the coach for the team.
You want to keep your cast, writers, crew, everybody feeling hopeful.
So I assumed that role right away,” he says.
Step 2: Pray
Rake didn’t have any concrete evidence thatManifestwould live again.
Meanwhile, he was making noise on social media, adding to the encouraging cheers from the fandom.
But Netflix wasn’t so encouraging at the time.
“Usually when a show drops on Netflix, it’s eight episodes, 10 episodes.
For us, it was a 42-episode dump,” Rake explains.
“It’s hard for people to watch 42 entire episodes over a weekend or a week.
So at first, Netflix took a wait-and-see approach.”
By this point, Rake had also reignited conversations with NBC, which clearly didn’t work out.
The challenge then became getting the gang back together.
Everyone in the cast and crew had been released after NBC canceledManifest.
“There were hard-fought negotiations and that’s always tough,” he explains.
“It’s business.
There were a lot of tough ones where people play chicken.
Who’s going to cave first?
So, of course, that would come up: ‘Do you absolutely need that person?’
‘Could the story go on without that character?’
‘Could you recast that role?’
Truthfully, the answer was no.
You might not tell an agent or a manager, but no one was replaceable.
Putting aside how much I love everybody, everybody was inherent.
Thankfully, it all worked out.”
“I’ve been treating it as two seasons.
The first 10 episodes comprising Part 1 will premiere on Netflix Nov. 4.
A premiere for Part 2 has not been announced.
Season 3 ended in tragedy and shock for the Stone family.
Season 4 begins two years after these events, and the Stone family is in a very dark place.
Dallas jokes Ben is now rocking his “grief beard.”
“The loss of Grace has left this enormous void in him and a profound depth of anger.
The thing about anger is it begs to stick around.
It can rob you of your light and leave you with nothing to offer.
It makes you hurt the ones who love you, and Ben does a fair bit of that.
The beard itself became a logistical nightmare for production.
Rake confirms season 4 has adopted flashbacks for catch viewers up on what happened during the time jump.
“It held everyone hostage, including my face,” he says with a laugh.
Rake, however, does assert that season 4 will feel more urgent for the characters.
Though they later walked away resurrected, they too would meet their second death.
“We’re going to finish exactly where we always were going to finish,” he vows.
Rake takes a moment to reflect on this journey.
“I doubt anything like this will happen again in my career.”
