Ryan Murphy teases that season three of The Politician won’t happen for ‘a couple of years’

Ryan Murphy is arguably the king of streaming television, and he can afford to be creative with his strategy of when to release new content.

And now that the second season of his Netflix show The Politician has dropped, the writer-producer-director, 54, is coy about when exactly a third go-round for Payton Hobart and company might be.

In late April, the American Horror Story creator discussed his plans for the show with Collider, acknowledging that he had always envisioned a three-season arc – but not necessarily in quick succession.

‘I think for me, for that show, I would like to do, and I think all of us involved in it, would probably like to do three seasons total,’ Murphy said.

‘And I think where season two ends, what I would love to do is take a couple of years off and have Ben Platt get a little bit older for his final race,’ he continued. ‘That would obviously be a presidential race, right?’ 

The show has followed Platt’s character Payton’s political aspirations from the relatively humble beginnings of his Santa Barbara high school all the way to loftier arenas by the end of season two, so it would make sense that the third season would see him taking a shot at becoming POTUS. 

‘That’s always what we had designed, and I think that’s what our plan is. I’m going to wait,’ Ryan added. ‘Ben is young [he’s 26], so I want to wait a couple of years to figure out how we age him up a little bit. But that’s always been my plan.’

Season two of The Politician, which dropped Friday, sees larger roles from celebrated actresses Judith Light and Bette Midler, as Peyton’s eventual political nemesis and her top advisor, respectively.

The series, which is responsible for coaxing Oscar winner and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow back to the craft of acting, is part of Murphy’s illustrious and high-priced Netflix deal, which has also thus far produced his period series Hollywood.

Murphy co-created The Politician with his Scream Queens and Glee co-creators, Ian Brennan and Brad Falchuk, the latter of whom is married to Paltrow.

A six-time Primetime Emmy winner, Ryan is also responsible for some of the most buzz worthy network television content of late as well, including the first two seasons of American Crime Story (the first revolving around the trial of O.J. Simpson, and the second focusing on the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace).

Two of the most anticipated projects soon to come from the illustrious Murphy are a third season of Crime Story focusing on the Monica Lewinsky Scandal, and a new series titled Ratched, about the evil nurse Mildred Ratched first immortalized by actress Louise Fletcher in 1975’s Academy Award-winning One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.