‘Task’ Boss Entertains ‘Mare of Easttown’ Crossover: “I Love the Idea of Their Worlds Intersecting”

We’ve now entered crime-drama fall.

The new HBO series Task, starring Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey, is set to debut on Sunday night, and its creator, Brad Ingelsby, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter at the recent premiere in NYC about why he wanted to tell the story of Task after the success of Mare of Easttown, which both explore similar themes of grief, generational trauma and are based in the same setting: Delaware County, Pennsylvania. He also muses over the idea of both worlds colliding.

“I think there were still more stories to be told about people in Delaware County,” Ingelsby said. “They exist in the same world, so it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Mare (played by Kate Winslet) walked into a Wawa that Tom (played by Ruffalo) was in. I don’t have a story in mind that’s a crossover, but I love the idea of their worlds intersecting.”

Pelphrey responds to the idea of a potential crossover of universes, “Welcome to the new MCU,” he laughed before adding, “That would be amazing. I was a huge fan of Mare of Easttown. And obviously, I’m a big fan of Task. So, if there’s a version where those things crossover, I think that would make a lot of people very happy.”

Mare of Easttown followed Winslet’s Mare Sheehan, a detective who investigates a murder while dealing with her own struggles. Task sees Tom Brandis (Ruffalo), a former priest-turned-FBI agent, assigned to a Task Force to stop a string of robberies run by family man Robbie Prendergrast (Pelphrey).

To play an FBI Agent, again, Ruffalo told THR about his preparation. “I had a lot of support,” he said. “So much of it was what [Tom’s] dealing with personally. But I also had just the most incredible technical advisor, Scott Duffy, who is an FBI agent, but also trains FBI agents, and he was with us every single day, and I would run over to him, and we were constantly like, ‘How do we get a deeper cut on us? How do we make it this character’s version of being an FBI agent? How do we make it interesting to people?’”

As Ruffalo and Pelphrey’s raw performances lead the show, Ingelsby explains why they were both the right people for their respective roles.

“I think Mark Ruffalo, as a person, has many of the admirable qualities of Tom as a character, and those are compassion, empathy, always looking to find the good in people and incredibly humble. When you start to list the qualities that Tom Brandis has, he’s in the seminary; he’s from the northeast; he’s a father; he’s a theologian — you have a list of perfect actors that is really small and Mark is at the top of that list,” Ingelsby said. “And Pelphrey, he auditioned for us, as soon as I heard him laugh, I thought, ‘What an infectious, incredible laugh. He has the physicality to play Robbie.’ He also has the humanity to be a father, to care for his kids and he’s really sensational.”

Since the show has already received rave reviews from critics, there’s buzz about a second season, but Ingelsby plays it coy, telling THR, “As long as audiences have an interest in this season, I’ll continue to write them.”

Task premieres on HBO Max at 9:00 p.m., with new episodes dropping weekly.