Will ‘Serial’s Second Season Focus On Bowe Bergdahl?

The Serial podcast, for its second season, will reportedly focus on the circumstances surrounding the Taliban’s 2009 capture of Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl and his subsequent five-years in captivity.

Serial Tackling Bowe Bergdahl?

This time around, Serial‘s Sarah Koenig is teaming up with Page One’s Mark Boal and Hugo Lindgren to unearth new information concerning Bergdahl’s story, according to Deadline. Together, the three journalists will try to suss out fact from fiction and determine why Bergdahl left his base, leaving him vulnerable to the Taliban. However, Koenig will remain the main voice of Serial.

Boal, in addition to working on the podcast, is gearing up to work with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty director Kathryn Bigelow on a feature film about Bergdahl. Bigelow, who will have to wait until Bergdahl’s future is determined in the courts to get moving in earnest on the project, will not be a part of the Serial podcast.

As the speculation continues to spread about the possibility of Serial covering Bergdahl, the podcast has refused to confirm or deny the primary subject of its second season. Through a spokesperson, the podcast has intimated that it wishes to keep its stories under wraps, and would appreciate the media’s help in doing so.

“We’d very much appreciate if fellow journalists would give us some room and not feel the need to attempt to dig into and try to figure out what you think we might be doing, especially since we’re actively reporting stories, and having a bunch of wild speculation out there makes our job reporting harder,” Emily Condon, a production manager for Serial and This American Life, said in a statement.  “Doesn’t feel very menschy.”

“In any case, here’s what I can tell you: The Serial staff is currently working on several things simultaneously: Season 2, Season 3, and some other podcast projects,” she added. “For now we’re not talking publicly about anything that we’re working on.”

In its first season, Serial investigated a murder case in Maryland from more than 10 years ago. Koenig’s dogged pursuit of finding out whether or not convicted murderer Adnan Syed actually murdered his high school girlfriend became a viral sensation. The success of the unassuming podcast promised future seasons, and anticipation for the subject matter has been building since season one wrapped up late last year.