Shetland's tenth season came to its riveting conclusion on Wednesday night as DI Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) and DI Tosh McIntosh (Alison McDonnell) finally uncovered what happened in the murder of retired social worker Eadie Tulloch.
While fans will no doubt now be anticipating an eleventh season of the popular BBC crime drama, speaking to The Radio Times, Ashley and Alison revealed they had no idea whether they would be heading to the Scottish islands again.
When asked by the publication about the show's future, Ashley said she had "no idea" what would happen, with Alison saying they couldn't "reveal" anything before Ashley clarified that the pair were the "wrong people for any of these questions".
Ashley continued: "I have no idea, and I expect nothing. And you know what? I think you've got to just live in the moment and be present and not worry about if people like Perez more than Calder, and not worry about if there's going to be season 11. You've got to just be here and know and enjoy what we have."
Shetland continues to have relatively stable viewership figures, with the past three seasons all achieving over 5 million viewers, although back in 2021, it attracted over 7 million viewers. Due to its recent ending, the show's viewing figures have not yet been released, but Broadcast Now noted that the recent season had a "strong launch" in terms of its viewership.
When the show was last renewed, back in 2023, the release noted: "Shetland is loved by millions of fans on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, with this year's series averaging 7.0 million viewers across its run, in line with the previous run. In Scotland, Shetland was the second biggest drama of the year across all channels and streamers, behind Happy Valley.
What might happen in Shetland's future?
Despite hanging up his detective's badge at the end of the show's seventh season, fans are still hoping that Douglas Henshall could return as DI Jimmy Perez.
However, the Scottish actor has previously thrown cold water over the idea, saying he was "done" during an appearance on This Morning back in 2022. The star previously explained to The Radio Times that his departure was "preferable to being told that we were not going to do it anymore because it had run its course".
© ITV/Shutterstock"I decided to leave a few years ago because I felt that Perez's story was coming to a natural end - it was time to find a resolution to Perez's private life," he previously told the BBC. "I never wanted to ruin the things that were unique to him and our series, so it felt like the right time to wrap up his story in a way that would be satisfactory to everybody."
He continued: "I am aware we're not changing the world in any way, shape or form but as far as crime shows go, Shetland does really well in that genre. We tell stories that are very good, the characters are great and I wanted to go out on a high."
