Mare will return to Easttown! Berwyn filmmaker Brad Ingelsby reveals actors for 2nd seasons of HBO’s ‘Mare of Easttown’ and ‘Task’

Cue the Wawa coffee and tricky accent: Kate Winslet is coming back to Delco.

Filmmaker Brad Ingelsby all but guaranteed a second season of the HBO hit, Mare of Easttown, at a special appearance at World Wide Stereo in Wayne Tuesday night.

Enough time has elapsed since Season 1 for another crime to plausibly rock Mare’s small town, he said. “I love the idea of one more season of Mare. I know Kate wants to do it… I’ve got to get through [Season 2 of] Task and then I think we’ll turn our attention to Mare.”

Winslet and Jean Smart will reprise their roles as the prickly detective and her wisecracking mother, Helen, respectively. “We have to bring back Helen – she’s one of my favorites,” Ingelsby said.

The filmmaker has “good pieces of the story” in place and expect to film in and around Mare’s old Delco stomping grounds – the fictional Delco suburb “Easttown” – in 2027.

Winslet won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Mare, while Smart received multiple nominations.

Ingelsby also revealed that he’s nearly halfway through writing Season 2 of Task and mentioned three key actors.

Mark Ruffalo will reprise the leading role of priest-turned-FBI-agent Tom Brandis while Martha Plimpton will again play Tom’s gruff FBI superior, Kathleen McGinty.

Ingelsby said Season 2’s “bad guy” will be played by acclaimed actor Mahershala Ali, who has won Oscars for roles in Moonlight and Greenbook. Presumably, Ruffalo and Plimpton will lead a new task force that’s hunting down Ali.

Emmy nominations won’t be announced until July but at least three Task Season 1 stars are making short lists: Ruffalo, his co-star Tom Pelphrey who played the desperate dreamer/criminal Robbie Prendergast, and Emilia Jones, who portrayed Robbie’s brave, no-nonsense niece, Maeve.

Filming for Task’s second season will begin in late summer of this year, Ingelsby said.

Ingelsby was the headliner of a special event for members of Main Line School Night in partnership with World Wide Stereo. He attended T/E schools, Archbishop Carroll and Villanova before earning an MFA from the prestigious American Film Institute.

Although he grew up in Berwyn and is now raising his family there, he told the Wayne audience that “the people, conversations and interiors” of his grandparents’ and aunts’ homes in Drexel Hill and Springfield have resonated with him since childhood.

“I feel like that’s the blood in my veins more than the Main Line aspect of my life. I’ve always felt closer to the working-class ethic. I still feel that way … I still have a deep appreciation for those conversations, that way of life, the rhythms and rituals of life in a certain place.”

A childhood stutter made him a “good listener,” he said. “I didn’t grow up with Mare as a cop, but I [did have] a priest in my kitchen. I grew up having those conversations and the priests were drinking Manhattans and … yelling about what kind of Catholic you were.”

During the cocktail reception preceding the program, World Wide Stereo showed Task on its giant screens while soundtracks of Ingelsby’s hit shows played in the showroom. The ticketed event was a perk exclusively for members of the lifelong learning nonprofit, Main Line School Night, and sold out within days.