Will Big Little Lies get a second season?
After Big Little Lies aired its finale a mere week ago, rumours instantly began to circulate that the popular and highly rated limited series would no longer be quite so limited, and return for a second season on HBO.
In a recent Instagram Live session, executive producer and star Reese Witherspoon said, “One of the main questions everyone keeps asking us is, is there going to be a Season 2. We’ve been talking with the writer, and you guys should Facebook ( novelist) Liane Moriarty and tell her how much you want to see Big Little Lies 2. That would be good. She’s t hinking about ideas, and so we would love to hear ideas.”
Soon after, co- star Laura Dern told Vanity Fair, “We had the time of our lives making this. People are asking us a lot if there is room for a Season 2 of this, and I know there is a lot of discussion, so ... whatever it is, we will come up with something really fun for sure.”
Adding fuel to the fire this week was Moriarty herself, who wrote the novel the series was based on. In an interview with Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, she said that the producers have asked her to pitch ideas for a second season. “I have started to think about ways this could continue,” she said. “I wouldn’t write a new book, but perhaps a new story, and then we’ll see what happens.”
In fact, she says she’d hope to focus on the backstory of Zoe Kravitz’s Bonnie, along with the aftermath of Nicole Kidman’s Celeste and the murder of — spoiler alert — her husband.
But director Jean- Marc Vallée has not been so positive. He recently said to The Hollywood Reporter, “To do a Season 2, I’m not for it. Let’s move on and do something else!” But he later added, “If there’s an opportunity to reunite with Reese, Nicole and these characters, of course, I’ll be a part of it. But Big Little Lies One is a onetime deal. Big Little Lies 2? Nah. The end is for the audience to talk about. Imagine what you want to imagine and that’s it. We won’t give you a Season 2 because it’s so good like this. Why spoil it?”
In an interview with Vulture, he repeated his stance: “No, no, this is the perfect ending. There is no way; there’s no reason to make a Season 2. That was meant to be a one- time deal, and it’s finishing in a way where it’s for the audience to imagine what can happen. If we do a Season 2, we’ll break that beautiful thing and spoil it.”
While that certainly seems to be the case, as most popular limited series go, it’s hard for networks to leave well enough alone. Just look at True Detective and The Night Of, both HBO properties in talks for additional seasons.
But of course, one of the major draws for the series was its all- star cast. It’s not everyday you can wrangle high- wattage movie stars for a television series, season after season. But if both Witherspoon and Dern have already approved of more, it seems Kidman wouldn’t be far behind.