HBO Is Bringing a Follow-Up Episode to 'The Case Against Adnan Syed' to Your Streaming Queue
With Syed's murder conviction recently overturned, HBO is returning to the case — just like 'Serial'.
When news dropped that Adnan Syed's murder conviction had been overturned, an obvious announcement followed: Sarah Koenig's grimly addictive podcast Serial, which spent its first season exploring the killing of Baltimore high school student Hae Min Lee and the extremely complex legal matters surrounding her ex-boyfriend Syed, was returning for a new episode. That new instalment, called 'Adnan Is Out', is available to listen to now — and Serial isn't the only recent Syed-focused hit that's making a comeback as a result.
Here's another expected but also welcome development: The Case Against Adnan Syed, HBO's four-part documentary series about the case, is also making a new chapter. The US network revealed that a follow-up episode is in the works, with filmmaker Amy Berg (Phoenix Rising, Dogs, West of Memphis) returning behind the lens.
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"We knew the end of The Case Against Adnan Syed was not the end of this story, and we've been closely following every twist and turn in the case since the series premiered in March 2019," said Berg in a statement.
"It's gratifying to see many of the questions and issues probed in the original episodes come to bear on the events of this week," the filmmaker continued.
HBO revealed that the new episode will arrive sometime in 2023, but hasn't dropped any further details — including how long it'll run for or the exact release date. Where it'll stream Down Under hasn't been announced yet, either.
HBO also advised that Berg has been filming the follow-up episode in Maryland since early 2021, and was in the courthouse when Baltimore City Circuit Judge Melissa Phinn vacated Syed's murder conviction. The Case Against Adnan Syed's new episode will not only chart the lead up to that decision, but will also follow Syed after his release.
Image: Adnan Syed. Via: Syed Family / Courtesy of HBO.
If you missed the HBO series when it premiered in 2019, it examined 18-year-old Lee's death in 1999 and Syed's conviction in 2000, as well as the latter's ongoing quest to have his conviction reassessed in the years since he was found guilty. Lee and Syed's relationship, tothe original police investigation and trial, the developments up until the show hit the air — they all featured, with the documentary gaining exclusive access to Syed, his family and his lawyers.
Yes, it made for gripping viewing, with Berg working on the original four episodes since 2015. It was always bound to be compelling and thorough, given her excellent doco background — helming 2006's Oscar-nominated 2006 Deliver Us from Evil, about molestation in the Catholic Church; examining the West Memphis Three's quest for freedom in 2012's aforementioned West of Memphis; and tackling the sexual abuse of teenagers in the film industry in 2014's An Open Secret.
Check out the trailer for The Case Against Adnan Syed's initial run below:
HBO's follow-up episode to The Case Against Adnan Syed doesn't currently have a release date, other than arriving in 2023 — we'll update you when it does. In the interim, the original series is available to stream via Fetch in Australia .
Images: SBS / HBO
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