A recent issue of Production Weekly revealed that filmmaker David Lynch (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks) will be embarking on new project, entitled Wisteria, for Netflix. According to IndieWire, very little is known about the project at this point, aside from the fact that Sabrina S. Sutherland (The Return, Inland Empire) is attached as a producer and that filming will get underway in May 2021. However, sparse information has not stopped rabid Twin Peaks fans from speculating that this project may have a connection to the world of Twin Peaks.
The Return, the eighteen-part Showtime continuation of the cult 90s mystery series Twin Peaks, was Lynch’s most recent full-length project. Aside from the short-film What Did Jack Do?, which premiered on Netflix this year, Lynch has been working on various visual art projects outside the realm of film and television. During quarantine, Lynch has been giving fans updates on his art projects as well as daily weather reports and a number of the day on his YouTube Channel.
In a September interview with PCS Literary Magazine, Lynch said that he’s enjoying the isolation of quarantine, despite the fact that it’s prevented production on any new projects. According to IndieWire, Lynch confirmed in October that he would have been working on a new film or “continuing story” in 2020, if it weren’t for the pandemic. Netflix’s Wisteria may have been the project that Lynch was teasing.
Though neither Lynch nor Netflix have yet to make an official statement regarding Wisteria, the news of its production already has Twin Peaks fans scrambling for clues after The Return’s provoking ending. Nerdist speculates that Wisteria may center on Carrie Page, doppelganger of tragic Twin Peaks figure Laura Palmer, who was introduced in The Return‘s finale. According Nerdist, Lynch has expressed interest in delving into Carrie Page’s story after her brief appearance at the end of The Return. Furthermore, internet-sleuths have discovered that Wisteria happens to be a street name in Odessa, Texas, the town in which Carrie Page resides.
The news of Wisteria, is not the first occasion in which Twin Peaks fans have gotten worked up over a potential spin-off or fourth season after The Return aired in 2017. In September 2019, the Twitter page for The Hollywood Horror Museum, tweeted rumor that new Twin Peaks content could be expected in 2020. According to IndieWire, Jennifer Lynch, Lynch’s daughter, serves on the board of the museum which added to the credibility of the rumor. The Museum’s account will still get tweets from Twin Peaks fans, and they claim that a COVID-19 shutdown prevented the project which was the subject of their original tweet. Now fans are wondering whether or not Wisteria is the project in question.
Twin Peaks actors Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks, Portlandia) and Michael Horse (Twin Peaks, The Return) stoked the flames of the Hollywood Horror Museum’s 2019 tweet with ominous posts on their social media accounts as the rumor picked up traction online. Horse simply posted a screenshot of his Twin Peaks character, Deputy Hawk, being shushed by Deputy Andy on Instagram with no caption added. MacLachlan posted picture of himself in a suit on Twitter, claiming that he was thinking about donuts, in a line pulled directly from Twin Peaks.
According to IndieWire, MacLachlan has recently stated that he would be willing to revisit the iconic role of Twin Peaks’ Special Agent Dale Cooper, but that future for the character resides, hidden in Lynch’s mind. Whether Wisteria will provide MacLachlan and Twin Peaks fans a chance to revisit the show’s beloved world once more, remains a mystery. Nerdist speculates that, due to Lynch’s mysterious nature, “there’s a good chance we won’t know what Wisteria is until it appears on our TV screens.”
In the meantime, Lynch fans can still receive daily updates from the seventy-four-year-old director on his YouTube channel and support his nonprofit organization, The David Lynch Foundation, in their upcoming December 3 fundraiser to bring transcendental meditation resources to children and frontline workers.