Spoilers for season 1 of Outer Banks below.
Watching the soapy teen drama of Netflix’s Outer Banks left me longing for a tan, a fictional summer romance, and a sun-drenched vacation. But more than anything, it left me craving a second season that will make sense of the show’s wild final episode.
The series follows the socioeconomic warfare between the elite Kooks and working class Pogues in the North Carolina region known as Outer Banks. “It’s the sort of place where you either have two jobs or two houses,” the show’s trailer explains. “Two tribes, one island.” At the show’s center is a treasure hunt for $400 million aboard a sunken ship. Along the way, there are love triangles and murder motives to satisfy all your horny and vindictive urges.
If you, too, found yourself invested in a show that somehow satisfies your One Tree Hill, The Goonies, and Gossip Girl obsessions, here’s everything you need to know about a potential second season.
There’s no confirmation or release date.
Netflix has yet to officially renew the 10-episode drama, which was released on April 15. However, should the show get green-lit for season 2, production will likely be delayed. Filming on TV shows and films has halted across the board due to COVID-19, meaning Outer Banks season 2 (likely) won’t be headed to our screens until late 2021 or early 2022.
Season 1 left off on a major cliffhanger.
It’s hard to imagine any viewer would be satisfied with Outer Banks ending after that season 1 finale, which saw the Pogues discover gold within the depths of the sunken Royal Merchant and Ward (Charles Esten), Sarah’s (Madelyn Cline) father and a major roadblock for her romance with John B (Chase Stokes), steal the loot and frames John B for murder—potentially to cover his own tracks. So star-crossed lovers John B and Sarah flee Outer Banks in a boat that capsizes during a tropical storm. The couple survives (though no one else knows that) and are rescued at sea by another boat. Their presumed next moves? Taking back the treasure from Ward and clearing John B’s name.
The show’s creator envisions four or five seasons of the show.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, creator and showrunner Jonas Pate revealed his plans for the show extend far beyond season 2. “Ever since we started, we always viewed it as something that was probably like a four-season, maybe five-season show, but definitely four seasons,” Pate said. “We’ve sort of long-arced it out pretty far. I’m just hoping that we get a chance to actually tell those stories.”
Season 2 scripts are already in the works.
Pate is wasting no time mapping out a second season in quarantine. He told Entertainment Weekly that “before [season 1] even came out, Netflix had greenlit us to write some [season 2] scripts, so we’ve been working on that for a few months now.”
He also elaborated on his vision for season 2 and teased “some new mysteries,” adding, “we love the mashup of friends on this fantasy thrilling adventure, and we feel like we really just played the opening round of that story,” Pate told the outlet. “And now that the audience knows our characters and the baseline engine of the mystery is going, we just feel like we have a lot more good twists and turns left to explore, so we’re excited for more.”
Jackson Davis/Netflix
The second season will likely take place in the Bahamas.
What would this show be without a tropical location? Pate told EW that the series will have a partial location change in the second season, although it will still be full of sun and surf. “We’ll definitely have at least a part of season 2 that’ll take place in the Bahamas, but it’ll all come back to the Outer Banks because that’s our spiritual home,” he explained. “So we’ll get back to the Outer Banks pretty quickly, I’m sure, but there’ll be definitely an episode or two that that has some Bahamas in it.”
Jackson Davis/Netflix
Most of the original cast is likely to return—and their characters have revenge on the brain.
It stands to reason that the OG cast members will be back, including Stokes, Cline, Esten, Madison Bailey as Kie, Jonathan Daviss as Pope, Rudy Pankow as JJ, Austin North as Topper, and Drew Starkey as Rafe. While questions abound about new cast members, Bailey told Seventeen she thinks the Pogues will be seeking revenge over the presumed demise of John B. “There’s gonna be a whole new dynamic,” she explained. “How do you go about life without your best friend? I think it’s going to be rough on everyone. And we’re going to have to come together and take care of each other now more than ever. But revenge is going to be on all of our minds.”
Courtesy of Netflix
Pankow also theorized that the absence of John B will be felt amongst the group. “Justice is going to be served, but it’s just a matter of who does it,” he told Seventeen. “I think I really want to see him struggle with coming to terms with the fact that his best friend is gone, and what’s the point in trying any more?”
This post will be updated.