NEW YORK — After British filmmaker Francis Whately captured David Bowie in his 2013 film, “David Bowie: Five Years,” he thought documenting the life of his musical hero was complete. Turns out he was mistaken.

The end of Bowie’s life was equally interesting to Whately as he centers on the artist’s final projects in the new HBO documentary, “David Bowie: The Last Five Years.” It started airing this week, which marks two years since Bowie died at age 69.

“It was only after his sort of untimely passing that the BBC approached me again and said, ‘Would I do another film?’ And initially I was wary of doing anything else because I felt I’d already made a film, while not being completely definitive, did look at the key years of his career certainly up to the 1980s,” he said.

The first documentary covered five significant years in Bowie’s career, which included the creation of Ziggy Stardust in 1971 and his 1983 commercial success, “Let’s Dance,” but Whately found something intriguing about his later days.

“A period of his life that was of the most interest was those last five years when he returned after his heart attack from some kind of seclusion and ... (was) back in the spotlight in some way even though he didn’t give any interviews,” Whately said.

The second documentary focuses on Bowie’s final two albums — “The Next Day” and “Blackstar” — as well as the stage play “Lazarus,” which took its inspiration from the 1976 film, “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” which starred Bowie.