It's Rumor Time: Is David Lynch working on a new season of Twin Peaks?

There have been some rumblings on social media over the past couple of days—nothing stronger than a slight tremor, mind you—which seem to point in the general direction of Twin Peaks. Is it happening again? Well, something might be happening again, though it’s unclear if that something is a fourth season of Twin Peaks or just a small collection of coincidences. Let’s put on our thinking caps and sift through this evidence to see what’s what, shall we?

It’s important to note at the outset that Peaks creator and director David Lynch hasn’t ruled out a fourth season, despite the apparently conclusive nature of The Return. Back in 2017, Lynch explained that it took four and a half years to write and film the third season for Showtime. Ultimately, a fourth season depends on a couple of key factors: Showtime’s willingness to greenlight and finance another installment, and whether or not Lynch comes up with a worthy continuation. That said, there are a few notable breadcrumbs indicating that Lynch & Co. are up to something.

First, this curious tweet from the Hollywood Horror Museum, where Lynch’s daughter, Jennifer Lynch, serves as a board member:

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If we take this tweet at face value, it could be that Lynch is working on something Peaks-related, though given the amount of time it took him to write and direct The Return, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see a whole-ass new season of Twin Peaks in 2020. What’s more likely—again, supposing this tweet is accurate—is that Showtime (or Lynch) makes an official announcement in 2020. Whether that announcement is the start of production on a new season or a museum exhibit is anyone’s guess.

A few days after that tweet, on October 1, Michael Horse—who plays Deputy Hawk—posted this intriguing photo to his Instagram account:

Horse doesn’t usually post Peaks content; his extremely normal Instagram is filled with cat pics and nature photos, which makes this post worthy of an eyebrow raise, at the very least. Taken with this tweet from Kyle MacLachlan, also posted yesterday, and our eyebrow raises to Dwayne Johnson levels of exaggeration:

Before you get too excited, let’s look at a far less convincing piece of evidence: Lynch’s cinematographer, Peter Deming, was in Snoqualmie Falls (where Peaks was filmed) back in February:

That’s six whole months before all this hubbub started, but it’s important to keep your expectations in check. Deming could’ve been visiting. It could’ve been an old video he forgot to share. Maybe he was in town filming something for the upcoming box set, which includes all three seasons of Twin Peaks as well as Fire Walk With Me and various bonus features. Basically, Deming’s Instagram post does nothing for this rumor.

Sorry to give you whiplash, but here’s where things get persuasive again: A couple of weeks ago, Lynch tweeted out his thanks to King County, Washington, which made the filming of Twin Peaks possible. Lynch is an irregular social media user at best, but even this tweet felt curiously random:

Note the date: September 18. That’s the same day that the Salish Lodge & Spa—another Peaks filming location—shared a Facebook post announcing that its dining hall would be closed for two days. On the afternoon of the second day, September 20, Salish posted this to both Facebook and Twitter:

We have officially reached the HMM portion of this rumor, but there’s one more piece to consider: On September 30, We Got This Covered ran a report claiming that Showtime is in talks with Lynch for another season of Twin Peaks. The site claims their source is the same person who (correctly) tipped them off about Ewan McGregor returning as Obi-Wan for a new Star Wars project, as well as Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters movie centering on young teens. (To be fair, the McGregor thing was going around for years, but the Ghostbusters thing is more viable in this context.)

Based on the above evidence, there are a few possibilities:

• David Lynch is working on a new season of Twin Peaks, which will be announced next year—but we probably won’t see it until 2023?
• David Lynch recently filmed some bonus materials for the Twin Peaks box set, which won’t be released until December.
• David Lynch is working on a museum exhibit/book/some other thing that’s Peaks or Lynch-related.
• Or—my personal favorite and deepest wish—David Lynch is working on a new Twin Peaks feature film, similar to Fire Walk With Me.

I like this last one, not just because it would fucking rule, but because it’s believable enough: A new season of Peaks would take too long to make, he’s not getting any younger, and it’s possible that he has an idea of how to continue the story, but it’s not enough for a whole season of television. Realistically, the most likely answer is probably the second or third suggestion on that list. But who knows! Life is full of surprises, and so is David Lynch. The world sucks right now, so enjoy your optimism where you can get it.