Veteran actor Jeff Bridges can these days be seen starring in the FX series The Old Man which garnered a second season renewal after season 1 was a hit. Where exactly he starts popping up next is not entirely clear for the actor at this time, but he doesn't see retirement on the horizon. Perhaps that's because he's been enjoying himself with The Old Man after figuring that his career had already been over not so long ago.

In October 2020, Bridges publicly announced that he'd been diagnosed with lymphoma and would be undergoing chemotherapy treatments. By September 2021, he had made remarkable progress with his battle, announcing that his cancer was in remission. The Old Man marks Bridges' return to acting after his battle, and in a new interview with Variety, the actor explains why he doesn't see himself retiring anytime soon, even if he's playing a retired CIA operative in the series.

"I thought after my illness I didn’t know if I was gonna go back to work. I thought I was retiring, very seriously. And I don’t know. You know, my dad he worked right up to the very end. I don’t know, I’m just leaving that up to the way it works out. I’m not sure."

Bridges also spoke about landing the lead role in The Old Man. Admitting he was hesitant to venture into small screen work, Bridges says he signed on after noticing the quality of other television shows of recent years, and it's a decision he's very happy with now.

"I originally resisted doing television. My father, Lloyd Bridges, had done several TV shows, and I saw how he was kind of frustrated with how quickly the shows were shot, and how they couldn’t pay as much attention to detail and so forth. But then I started to watch all this great content that is coming out of the tube these days. And I thought 'This is something to explore' and I’m glad I did because I was not disappointed. There was really no differences in making the show than there was movies."

Related: The Old Man: How Jeff Bridges Masters This FX Series

A Second Season of The Old Man Is Coming

The Old Man
FX

Created by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine, The Old Man debuted on FX back in June. Along with Bridges, the series stars John Lithgow, E.J. Bonilla, Bill Heck, Leem Lubany, Alia Shawkat, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Amy Brenneman. The series follows Bridges as a former CIA operative whose quiet life is interrupted when she's targeted by assassins, forcing him to come out of retirement and utilize his old skills. Bridges also spoke about what appealed to to him about the character he plays in the series.

"Well I was playing a former CIA operative and these guys are probably the best actors in the world. They’re acting for their lives. So I said, 'Oh, that’s something we have in common.' And we were very fortunate to have Christopher Huddleston, who was a CIA operative [advising the show.] He could really teach me all the ins and outs of that. And then as much as the story was interesting it was really the writing, you know, John Steinberg and Warren Littlefield, I was a fan of different stuff that they had done. And the kind of cast that they were talking about, it was a package that all started to come together."

The Old Man was renewed for a second season early into the first season's run on FX. Season 2 does not yet have a premiere date.