EXCLUSIVE: After a five-year build-up, it was a short run for Bad Robot’s 1970s crime drama Duster as HBO Max is not proceeding with a second season of the series from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan. The news comes less than a week after the Season 1 finale debuted on the platform.

Anything! Including the introduction of a serious plot twist for a potential Duster Season 2. As Nina’s FBI bosses reveal, and as she in turn reveals to Jim, the always unseen “Xavier” is actually his brother. Joey Ellis didn’t die in that exploding van. Saxton didn’t kill him. Instead, Sax helped Joey fake his own death and disappear.

TV viewers are questioning the lack of attention surrounding a new show being called “the most underrated” of 2025. In May, the long-gestating project Duster finally arrived on screens after a lengthy production rocked by the Hollywood strikes.