I wish there would have been a Season 3

This was a dark time in HBO 'management' many good shows fell victim to bad decisions. I will say HBO actually wanted to continue Carnivale but greatly reduce the budget per episode. At the time it cost 4 million per episode. Even 10 years later that cost per episode is prohibitive to get done. Daniel Knauff refused to lower the budget and HBO canceled it in response. Was bullheaded people butting heads.

I believe HBO offered a three-hour wrap-up film but because of the amount of unused story material he still had, Knauf did not favor finishing the Carnivàle story that way.

IMO, Knaupf should have taken the offer and revised his story so it at least had an ending. This isn't going to be Twin Peaks where the story is resolved after 25 years.