"The Borgias" executive producer James Flynn says he hopes for four seasons of the Showtime papal drama, which is about to enter its second season.
"The overall plan in a series like this is ideally four seasons," he said Thursday. "That would be the plan, that would be the ambition."
But he said the show could potentially continue after the death of Jeremy Irons' Pope Alexander VI, by focusing on the rule of his successor, Pope Julius II.
Flynn spoke at a "Borgias" panel for the Television Critics Association winter press tour, where Irons also spoke about his distinctive voice.
Irons said that when he was 25 or 30 years old, he and John Hurt once met for coffee and bemoaned the new crop of good, young actors. He said Hurt told him his trick for sabotaging the potential competition:
"Do you know what I do to them?" he recalled Hurt saying. "If I meet one, I say, 'You know you have a wonderful voice. Have you ever listened to it?' And you know, from then on, they are fucked.'"
"The Borgias" returns for its second season Sunday, April 8.
