The months of questions, rumors, and speculation about the episode count and premiere date for Showtime's revival of the 1990 – '91 David Lynch / Mark Frost television series Twin Peaks have just come to an end. Showtime President and CEO David Nevins has officially announced that the new season of Twin Peaks is an 18 hour event series that will kick off with a two hour premiere on Sunday, May 21 at 9 p.m.
As soon as the premiere has finished airing, Showtime subscribers will have access to the third and fourth hours of the event series on the Showtime streaming service and Showtime On Demand. These episodes will then be airing back-to-back on May 28.
After these two weeks of double episodes, Showtime will then start airing just one new hour of Twin Peaks every week.
All 18 hours of this series were directed by David Lynch, who also wrote the series with Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost.
Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential broadcast series of all time, TWIN PEAKS followed the inhabitants of a quaint northwestern town who were stunned after their homecoming queen Laura Palmer was shockingly murdered. The town's sheriff welcomed the help of FBI agent Dale Cooper, who came to town to investigate the case. As Cooper conducted his search for Laura's killer, the town's secrets were gradually exposed. The mystery that ensued set off an eerie chain of events that plunged the inhabitants of Twin Peaks into a darker examination of their very existence. Twenty-five years later, the story continues…
The only thing Lynch has revealed about this continuation is that "the story of Laura Palmer’s last seven days is very, very important for this." He has also said that there are no current plans to take the series beyond these 18 hours.
The cast of the Twin Peaks event series includes Kyle MacLachlan, Sheryl Lee, Sherilyn Fenn, Dana Ashbrook, Madchen Amick, Miguel Ferrer, David Patrick Kelly, Richard Beymer, Mark Frost, Frost's father Warren Frost, Ray Wise, Grace Zabriskie, Peggy Lipton, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, James Marshall, Al Strobel, Kimmy Robertson, Harry Goaz, Charlotte Stewart, Gary Hershberger, Jan D'Arcy, Harry Dean Stanton, Catherine E. Coulson, Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Balthazar Getty, Robert Knepper, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bailey Chase, Laura Dern, Robert Forster, Naomi Watts, Tom Sizemore, Grant Goodeve, Larry Clarke, Caleb Landry Jones, James Belushi, Ashley Judd, Jessica Szohr, and Lynch himself.
Diane, #Showtime is entering the town of #TwinPeaks. #TCA17 pic.twitter.com/L32xSIlbVb
— Twin Peaks (@SHO_TwinPeaks) January 9, 2017
