The first season of Wayward Pines was filmed with the intention that the ending would be final, creating a closed ten-episode series. Now that Wayward Pines is coming back for a second season, WonderCon attendees heard from the cast and crew what’s in store for the upcoming season.

Taking Wayward Pines further than originally intended was a decision that needed to be thoroughly thought through by both writer and author Blake Crouch and Executive Producer M. Night. Shyamalan.

“Should we continue this story or walk away from it? What is the end game here? We can’t just walk away without doing our due diligence, but we can’t go forward without making a compelling continuation of season one. We sat for three days coming up with a story and end game for Wayward Pines,” said Crouch.

“In a serialized story, when I feel the story tellers stretching beyond [their plans] and they don’t have anything to say, it bothers me as an audience member. So, for us, it was important to have an end. So we asked was that (season one) the end, or just an introduction? And we came up with ending that we were really excited about and went back [to the beginning] from there,” said Shyamalan.

One of the reasons Wayward Pines is seeing a second season is because the creators realized there were more stories to be told.

“Beyond the great premise, what was interesting about Wayward Pines was the human stories and that’s what compelled us, that’s what we enjoyed the most,” said Producer Donald De Line.

These types of human stories will be seen again, especially with the first generation of kids that have been born in Wayward Pines. Audiences should expect interesting psychological dilemmas as this new generation explores their roles in this community, and also tries to deal with the ultra-dangerous “abbies” (aberrations) who live just outside Wayward Pines’ walls.

“The abbies are us. They’re devolved humanity. We wanted to create monsters that are repulsive but familiar,” said Crouch. “The reason we wanted to continue the show is that we wanted to explore more of the story. The abbies—we don’t really know a lot about them, they’re not just the monsters beyond the fence, they have goals. This is their planet now.”

Wayward Pines’ original season centered on the mystery of the town, but for season two, Crouch and Shyamalan say to keep a close eye on the abbies.

“I would say this season, watch the abbies very closely. Every episode is learning something new about the abbies. There’s a moment of where we see an abbie alone on the street of Wayward Pines,” said Crouch.

With the upcoming season, the panel’s discussion implied audiences will learn a lot more about the Wayward Pines universe and how residents interact within it and their own community. But will this season be the end? Shyamalan says he hopes not.

“This is just Blake [Crouch] and I speaking…but if we were lucky enough to have a successful second season, we’d go for a third and end it,” said Shyamalan.

Wayward Pines returns to Fox on May 25.

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