The Next Season of 'Serial' Will Focus on This Controversial Case

Serial, the addictive This American Life spinoff podcast, got everyone talking last year when host Sarah Koenig told the story of Adnan Syed, a man currently in prison for a murder he insists he didn't commit. And now, it looks like the second season will be even more of a blockbuster.

Maxim reports, and other sites confirm, that the second season will focus on Bowe Bergdahl, an Army sergeant who was captured by a Taliban-allied group in Afghanistan and held for five years. Bergdahl had left his base without a discernible reason before he was captured, and it's still unclear what caused him to stray. Bergdahl has been charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy, and that could land him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Koenig will work with Page One, a documentary filmmaking company headed by Mark Boal and Hugo Lindgren. Boal worked with Kathryn Bigelow on the movie Zero Dark Thirty, and the duo are working on a separate movie on Bergdahl. Boal and Lindgren, the former editor of the New York Times Magazine, will report the story through Serial first, though Bigelow won't participate in the podcast.

The Serial team declined to comment to Maxim about the new season, only giving this statement:

"We'd very much appreciate if fellow journalists would give us some room and not feel the need to attempt to dig into and try to figure out what you think we might be doing, especially since we're actively reporting stories, and having a bunch of wild speculation out there makes our job reporting harder. Doesn't feel very menschy. In any case, here's what I can tell you: The Serial staff is currently working on several things simultaneously: Season 2, Season 3, and some other podcast projects. For now we're not talking publicly about anything that we're working on."

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