HBO’s Ballers is two episodes into its second season, but that didn’t stop the premium cable network from renewing its football comedy for a third season. The news comes from no less of a source than the series’ star himself, Dwayne Johnson.

The renewal probably shouldn’t be a surprise, as Ballers has drawn strong ratings for HBO thus far. Season one averaged 9.1 million viewers per episode across all of the network’s cable and digital platforms, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The season two premiere has drawn 5.7 million viewers thus far. Perhaps the vote of confidence coming from a series renewal will boost those numbers a bit.

Getting that $200 million copyright infringement lawsuit against Johnson and fellow executive producer Mark Wahlberg thrown out by a Los Angeles judge on Wednesday may have cleared the final obstacle.

Here is Johnson’s announcement on Instagram:

BREAKING: Baller alert. After just two episodes into our SEASON 2 of #Ballers, @HBO has ordered SEASON 3! Congratulations to our hard working cast, crew, producers and our show’s creator Stephen Levinson. Thank you to our home network HBO (Plepler, Bloys & brilliant team) for the commitment & long term vision of our show. To all our BALLER FANS out there – THANK YOU! Millions of you tune in every week to join us on this crazy journey of chasin’ greatness and dealin’ with life’s pain… and the greatest compliment we always hear from you is that we’re real and authentic. Means the world considering how close this character is to my bones. Now that you know there’s gonna be a Season 3.. you’ll be watchin’ this season with a different eye. Enjoy and have fun with it and above all else… Ball so hard. #Ballers SUNDAY NIGHTS 10pm on @HBO @sevenbucksprod

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Johnson had an intriguing tidbit in that blurb there, mentioning that season two will be watched “with a different eye” now that viewers know a third season is on the way. Will some storylines seem less final than they might have if there was a possibility that Ballers wouldn’t be coming back after its second season? Are there some plot or character threads that would have been left hanging, but can now be addressed later on? Maybe Andy Garcia’s Andre Allen will return to further antagonize Spencer Strasmore.

No word yet on whether or not Johnson and fellow executive producers Stephen Levinson and Mark Wahlberg will follow Jim Weber’s advice on how to improve the show by going darker.

[The Hollywood Reporter]

About Ian Casselberry

Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.

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