The creator of hugely popular Scandinavian drama The Bridge has stated that the upcoming fourth season will be the show's final run.
While the Swedish and Danish broadcasters who bankroll The Bridge have not formally ordered new episodes, creator Hans Rosenfeldt has all but consigned the show to TV Heaven.
Season three, which concluded last month on TG4, ended with Saga (Sofia Helin) and her new partner Henrik heading off in search of his missing daughters and his wife's murderer.
"I think there will be a fourth one but that will be the last," he told The Guardian. "We have a storyline. It's a different place where they start, a very different place."
Those comments echo similar statements by Rosenfeldt, when he indicated that a final decision would be made in April.
The Bridge faced a major shake-up last time around when Kim Bodnia - one of the show's leads, who played Danish detective Martin Rohde - quit over creative differences. However it seems, despite the success of his replacement played by Thure Lindhardt, the door remains open for his return.
"We parted as friends, he just didn't want to do what we wanted to do," Said Rosenfeldt. "We wanted him out [of prison] and he wanted to stay in and that was very hard for us. He said fine, you do what you want but you have to do it without me.
"There's nothing saying he can't come back if the story requires it, if we think something really good can come out of him coming back.
"We have proved the show is doing well without him. He's not dead - he's still in prison - but it can't be for nostalgia, it has to be that we really think that it benefits the show."
Sofia Helin, who has won legions of fans around the world for her portrayal as the socially awkward detective, who is possibly has Asperger's - it's never actually acknowledged - had spoken of the strain playing the role has on her.
‘It’s like a vice gripping all over my body,’ she said, leaving some to wonder if she too was considering calling time on the show. Luckily it seems, the old gang can be got together for one more tense, moody and gripping series which should hit our TV screens late next year.
The Bridge can be streamed on Netflix.
