The Society spoilers follow.
Netflix YA drama The Society left fans crying out for more following that compelling season finale which finally confirmed what had happened to the teenagers of West Ham. But there's more tears to come as The Society season two has now been cancelled by Netflix.
In a statement, Netflix blamed COVID-19, saying: "We've made the difficult decision not to move forward with second seasons of The Society and I Am Not Okay With This. We're disappointed to have to make these decisions due to circumstances created by COVID."
A source told The Hollywood Reporter that despite being happy with how both shows performed, the "uncertainty" over air dates, "unexpected budget increases" due to the pandemic, and the complications of managing a big cast were obstacles that proved too big to overcome.
"We spent the last bunch of months getting ready to go back again, dealing with all the COVID protocols," showrunner Chris Keyser told Variety. "And then I got a call from Netflix saying, 'We have made this decision.' It was obviously pretty upsetting and abrupt."
"We were dealing with Netflix and the rise in the budget and all of that kind of stuff," Keyser said. "There were ongoing conversations, we knew that there were challenges for this."
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Season two "was meant to be shot mostly in the summer," Keyser said. "But we were heading back into fall and winter. And then they made the decision that it was too much. That's, I guess, how it goes."
"I can't pretend I'm surprised," he continued. "I know we had many months of conversations about the challenges of producing in this environment.
"Obviously, no one wants to see the story they're writing end, and I would like the characters not to end up as the children of New Ham, to have disappeared suddenly, abruptly, never to be seen again. But I’m not entirely in control of that."
"This is extremely upsetting," he added. "But it would be for anyone. We have no choice but to, as so many people do within this period, deal with the losses that this pandemic has caused. I guess we're like all those small businesses and restaurants that closed and aren't going to reopen. Our people are out of jobs, but that's true all around the country."
Since the shock announcement, fans of the series have started a Change.org petition asking Netflix to renew the series, that currently has over 130,000 signatures. Star Kathryn Newton signed it herself, and posted about the petition on Twitter.
Many are still hopeful the series may return, even though it has already been more than two years since the first season was broadcast. That doesn't make it an impossible dream – after all, Stranger Things has had a three year gap between seasons, and since most of the actors in The Society are already grown up (playing roles younger than they are in real life), their ageing between seasons wouldn't be too noticeable.
The biggest problem now, two long years on from season one, is that many of the cast have moved onto other projects.
Kathryn Newton, who played Allie, has made the movies Freaky and The Map of Tiny Perfect Things since The Society finished, and she is currently filming Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Gideon Adlon has made the TV series Pacific Rim: The Black, Olivia DeJonge is making the thriller series The Staircase, while Jack Mulhern has filmed a role in Mare of Easttown and is now working on the mini-series Painkiller with Uzo Aduba and Matthew Broderick.
Creator Christopher Keyser hasn't been sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring since The Society's cancellation, either. He is currently working on drama series about the life of American cooking teacher and author Julia Child – entitled Julia – starring Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire alongside David Hyde Pierce as Julia's husband Paul and his old Frasier cast mate Bebe Neuwirth as publisher Avis DeVoto. Following that, Keyser is tipped to write the screenplay for a new adaptation of Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, to be directed by Ben Affleck.
You can read more about the details of The Society's cancellation here.
The Society season 2 – What questions were we left with?
While they were trapped in an alternate reality that looked and felt exactly like their home town, their parents, younger siblings and everyone else were in another reality, the "correct" one, so to speak.
But while one part of the mystery has been solved, there was another big question that needed answering: will the town's youngsters ever manage to find their way home, or will they be stuck there forever?
When the show planned to return, this is what the cast had to say in the official announcement (via Variety): "To the citizens of New Ham, we have some big news, really big, like bigger than the time that Gordie figured we're in a parallel universe.
"Are you ready? We're making season two of The Society. Do you know what this means? More pie. More fugitive. More memes. More answers. About Charlie. And Becca's baby daddy. And Grizz's hair. It will be worth the wait."
But "more answers" didn't necessarily mean all the answers, according to Keyser.
"It's hard to say [whether we'll reveal everything]," he told TV Guide. "We have answers to the questions. Whether we decide at some point, for dramatic purposes, it's more interesting for the kids to be, not entirely in the dark but not entirely certain either.
"I think the signs of [how they got there] will always be somewhat opaque to them, even if they can figure out how that might get reversed or if it might ever be reversed. Those things aren't easily revealed."
Here's everything we knew about season two before it was cancelled.
The Society season 2 release date – When will it air on Netflix?
As we explained, The Society season two was cancelled by Netflix due to the impact of COVID-19 on the TV and film industry.
Production on The Society season two did kick off in 2019, and it was announced back on April 2 (via Deadline) that it was expected it in "late 2020".
The Society season 2 trailer: When can I watch it?
A trailer was never released for a second season of the show, but here's a trailer for season one.
The Society season 2 cast: Who's returning?
Well, no one.
But Kathryn Newton was due to be back as Allie in season two.
Chatting to Cosmopolitan in 2019, she revealed that she was initially pretty nervous before walking onto set.
"Before I started The Society, I told [Reese Witherspoon, her Big Little Lies co-star], 'I'm really scared.'
"Reese was like, 'You're already a leader, you're going to do fine. Take everybody to dinner, take everybody bowling, have everyone over for game night.'
"That created a foundation where we're all really comfortable with each other and loved each other, and so the show's better that way, you know? We still have a group chat. I actually have new friends."
The following were also due to come back for round two:
- Will (Jacques Colimon)
- Campbell (Toby Wallace)
- Becca (Gideon Adlon)
- Sam (Sean Berdy)
- Harry (Alex Fitzalan)
- Kelly (Kristine Froseth)
- Helena (Natasha Liu Bordizzo)
- Elle (Olivia DeJonge)
- Gordie (José Julián)
- Bean (Salena Qureshi)
- Luke (Alex MacNicoll)
- Grizz (Jack Mulhern)
- Clark (Spencer House)
- Jason (Emilio Garcia-Sanchez)
- Lexie (Grace Victoria Cox)
Olivia Nikkanen, who plays Gwen, had also been upped to a series regular.
This was her official character description: "In high school, Gwen was the girl you didn't want on your bad side. Not quite Queen Bee, but certainly a member of the royal court.
"In New Ham, her social status is more precarious. Though Gwen is prone to fits of anxiety that leave her vulnerable and isolated, her wit, humour, and hidden talents will help redefine her role in the new world."
We would have expected Chaske Spencer to once again feature as Mr Pfeiffer. He was one of the bus drivers who drove the kids off for their school trip, and he was seen arguing with Harry's mum Karen (Anastasia Barzee) and both Sam and Campbell's dad Doug (Paul Anthony Stewart), at the beginning of the show.
Fans of the series have previously shared their suspicions about him – what was his role in all of this?
Showrunner Keyser was also down to return to head up season two.
Two people who probably wouldn't have been returning are Allie's older sister Cassandra (Rachel Keller) after she was shot dead, and Dewey (Seth Meriwether), who was executed by shooting after he was found guilty of murdering Cassandra.
However, perhaps they could've returned – after all, the existence of an alternate reality meant anything was possible.
The Society season 2 plot: What would have happened?
In the first season we found out, thanks to Gordie and Bean's research, that the reality they were living in wasn't their own but a parallel universe. At the end of the first instalment, they were still very much trapped there and had yet to figure out how to get home.
Meanwhile, the final scene took the audience back to the regular West Ham, which remained as it was, only without all of the town's teenagers.
There was a plaque on the wall which read 'We remember them', and all of the names of the missing teenagers were inscribed upon it. But it's not clear if they understood what had happened to their children, or what steps they were taking to get to the bottom of it.
In season two that key narrative strand would have naturally developed. But whether the teenagers would ever find a way to get back home was entirely up in the air, as well as what the ramifications of that would be.
There are still numerous questions relating to their disappearance, such as how they were transported to that alternate reality in the first place, and if there are any more twists left in store.
The expedition led by Grizz, in which he and a small group of students went off in search of land where they could grow food, was a success. They managed to find an area where they could cultivate crops and, in Grizz's words, "survive in this place".
They also came across some turkeys and discovered that fishing was possible, which means that when the food in the local stores eventually runs out, there's a chance that they won't starve to death.
But that moment of joy was undercut by the fact that Campbell, Harry and Lexie have usurped control of the town, while Allie and Will have been ousted. With that trio in charge, things were bound to get a whole lot uglier, particularly if Campbell got his own way.
Fans will no doubt have been intrigued to see where that leaves Elle now that he knows she tried to poison him, not to mention the future of Grizz and Sam's relationship, and the fact that Becca is now a mother.
"I was really mad by the finale," Kathryn Newton (Allie) told ET. "Obviously I wanted Allie to be in power, but you know I learned a lot from Allie... I mean the way she's all knowing all of a sudden. She's gonna let them come to her, I think. That's what I think!"
"I feel like she can't trust anyone... maybe Grizz? I love Grizz! I feel like Grizz and her – they're gonna come up with something," Newton continued. "He's still team Allie, I feel like."
There was also the mystery surrounding the father of Becca's baby.
Chatting to Cosmopolitan UK, Grace Victoria Cox, who plays Lexi, said that she had no idea who it was: "I have no clue! I don't know, so I'm just as excited to figure it out as everyone else."
She added: "I would love to see Lexie trying to rule New Ham and because of Campbell and the guard and Harry, it just going terribly and all of the chaos that they would get into I think that would be really fun to act and for people to watch."
Keyser chatted to Digital Spy about the show's more adult themes and his concerns around that.
"We worried all the time about what our responsibility was in producing content for kids, because television can be a suggestive medium," he said.
"This is what we decided, what we said – First of all, there are kids who are essentially 18-year-olds, and the majority, like the world, are going to face this stuff. It's an inevitability. Is it better to not do that, or avoid it? Or just to talk about it?
"I think it's better to talk about it. The show does not fetishise any of that stuff. The most important thing for us to say is that all of those things – sex, potentially, or not always, as sex can just be simply a beautiful thing.
"But sex, potentially, and certainly drug use, and maybe drinking in excess, or drinking in anyway, and absolutely violence – all of those come with consequences. And the consequences are things that matter."
Season two would have revolved around "the establishment of what we called the 'outpost,' and the eventual conflict between the outpost and the town over control," Keyser said (via Variety).
"It raised a lot of large questions about the way in which we treat each other, and the way we create caste systems and an underclass. It had big political implications, but also a lot of new relationships, and also resolving questions about who was in power, and who wasn’t."
Season two would have also seen "a descent into greater darkness, the rules don't hold."
"We spent a lot of time talking about the reasons why the children of West Ham became the children of New Ham. What the cause of that was, how they might return home."
Keyser also chatted to Metro about his vision for the future of the series: "Ali brought in the question of what happens to your political position regardless of the other world, and whether people believed or didn't believe that Ali and Casandra working were actually doing the right thing, or whether they were autocrats in their own right.
"But they didn't take revenge on their enemies. Now we're getting to the part where people are beginning to actually punish people who disagree with them and that's a real risk."
How long the series would have continued for, however, remains to be seen.
He added: "We don't have it all worked out, but we have lots of ideas of where we want to go."
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