IT’S been a week since HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” finally answered the burning question: Who killed Erin McMenamin? Despite the jam-packed finale, fans can’t help but wonder if the popular series will return for Season 2.

Star Kate Winslet recently sat down for an interview with TVLine and confirmed that she “would absolutely love to play Mare again.”

“I miss her. I really do,” she told the outlet. “It’s the strangest thing. I feel like I’m in mourning. It was an absolutely wonderful role. There’s something very addictive about Mare, because she’s so outrageous and lovable and brilliant and real, you know? I loved playing her.”

Casey Bloys, content chief of HBO, also teased the possibility of “Mare of Easttown” returning for Season 2. During an interview with Variety, the executive admitted that there have been “no real conversations about what Season 2 would look like.”

However, it’s not totally out of the cards. “Series creator Brad Ingelsby just did a fantastic job on ‘Mare,’” Bloys explained. “If Brad felt like he had a story to tell that felt like it would be at the same level, I think everybody would be open to it. Right now, he doesn’t have that story. Who knows? We’ll have to wait to see if they come up with something they’re dying to tell.”

The comments echo Ingelsby’s previous statement to The Hollywood Reporter that “Mare of Easttown” was “written as a limited” series but “maybe” a “deserving second chapter” could emerge in the future.

Meanwhile, Angourie Rice, who plays Mare’s daughter Siobhan, told Elle that initially she was keen to film a second installment. “My immediate response is, ‘Yeah!’ But then, the more I think about it, the more I think, actually, I’m so happy to leave those characters where they are. The more I think about it, the more I’m like, ‘No, no, no.’ I kind of love the power that this standalone story has. But, of course, if Brad wrote an incredible Season 2 or an incredible spinoff, I’d be like, ‘Yeah!’ I don’t know how he feels about it. When it was pitched to me, it was always going to be just seven episodes.”

“Mare of Easttown” originally premiered in April and immediately garnered huge interest worldwide for its gripping storyline, which follows a small-town detective (Winslet) as she investigates the tragic murder of a young mother (Cailee Spaeny).

(SD-Agencies)