Hollywood Q&A

Q: Has “Deep State” been canceled? And is Mark Strong no longer involved with the series?

A: “Deep State” has not been canceled, but Mark Strong has.

It’s become something of a trend among prestige dramas to write out their seemingly unkillable main characters (see, for example, “True Detective,” “Fargo” and, of course, “Game of Thrones”). Nonetheless, it still came as a surprise to fans when [slight spoiler alert] Mark Strong’s character seemed to have been written off at the end of “Deep State” Season 1. Strong was unquestionably the star of the show, and so many thought that the writers would find a way to bring him back in Season 2. But that season came and went without him.

His spot was filled by another critically beloved character actor, Walton Goggins, who played a very different character but brought the same gravitas and star power that Strong offered. The second season finished in the summer, but there’s been no word yet on a third. There’s every reason to be hopeful, though. The producers still have time to make the decision before they blow any kind of deadline, and in fact there aren’t any real deadlines, because the show’s British.

“Deep State” airs on Epix in North America, but it’s actually produced in Britain, and their networks don’t follow the same strict seasonal schedule that North American ones do (though our premium cable and streaming services are increasingly taking up the European laissez-faire attitude).

Q: I love Chicago P.D. and I’m looking at some of the earliest episodes. The music (by Atli Orvarsson) at the end of the shows is so powerful. Why did they stop using it on the new episodes?

A: Award-winning Icelandic composer Atli Orvarsson’s music was all over “Chicago P.D.,” and indeed all over Dick Wolf ’s other two “One Chicago” properties (“Chicago Med” and “Chicago Fire”). At least it was until recently. He’s still being used on “Med,” but he disappeared from the other two in early 2018. No one’s explicitly said why — composers don’t get the same attention that actors do — but it seems to have been part of a general refresh of the brand that happened last fall. Reviewing “Chicago P.D.’s” season premiere at the time, fan site OneChicagoCenter.com said that the episode, “continued the theme that ran through all of ‘One Chicago’ opening night — showing fans that things aren’t the same anymore in the city.” They were referring there to a number of major plot and character changes, but it’s possible that the producers wanted to more subtly signal those with a change to the music as well.

Q: I love Michael Caine. Where did he get his start?

A: It depends what you mean by “start,” as Michael Caine (whose name isn’t even really Michael Caine, but rather the more ponderous Maurice Micklewhite) took the long, hard road to acting success.

His true start was on the stage, as is the case with so many British film greats, but his breakthrough to fame came in a quick succession of film hits in the mid-1960s.

It started with 1964’s “Zulu,” a war film in which he had a supporting role as a coddled, upper-class army officer, playing against what we now know as his type — urban, working-class men who succeed based on skill and brass.

That type was defined in his very next film, “The Ipcress File,” his first big starring role. He played counterespionage agent Harry Palmer in the film, the first of many to feature the character. It was intended as the start of a sort of anti-James Bond spy franchise, pitting Caine’s unpolished working-man spy as a counterpoint to the posh superspy. Though that film did launch a series, Caine was quick to branch out to avoid being typecast (reportedly, he chose to have Palmer wear glasses so that he could leave them off in other films to distance himself from the character).