Anthracite is full of twists, turns, and scares, but it doesn’t look like Season 2 is a twist that’s on the cards. Netflix’s cultish limited series has been well received, but it doesn’t look like the intention was for the show to return, despite a mid-credits tease during the season finale implying there were more mysteries to solve.
Season 2 Will Probably Not Happen
Anthracite was always billed as a limited series, which means the intention was for it to have a single season. Despite performing well for Netflix, it is unlikely that the streaming giant will go back on this designation.
I know what many of you are thinking — there is a mid-credits sequence that seems to imply that a second season of the show is going to happen. However, I still feel that the show is done and dusted. The series covers all the big mysteries by its final episode, and we get a lot of closure for many of the plot lines. Despite the tease, there was a clear effort to get everything done and dusted in one season.
Why does Netflix not renew limited series?
It’s hard to speculate on the machinations of a global powerhouse such as Netflix, but what we do know is that shows that receive the “limited series” label have always been considered to be one-and-done.
At the time of green-lighting series such as Anthracite, the powers that be have already deemed that the show would be able to tell its story in a single season. Renewing shows for further seasons is not a decision that is made lightly, and there are many factors to consider. Retaining artists and crew involved in the first project can be difficult, as people often like to move on to other projects, and trying to recapture the same vibe as the first outing can be problematic.
With a limited series, Netflix and other platforms can often attract talent to a project that may want to experiment with ideas, and once they have completed their work, it can be hard to get them to stay for more.
However, realistically, it all comes down to numbers, and Netflix will look at production costs and the return they make on the show as the final factor in the decision-making process. On the plus side, there have been a couple of shows that have bucked the trend, and after being labeled a limited series initially, they have been so popular that they went on to have sequel seasons greenlit. The most notable example is obviously Squid Game.
What Season 2 could be about
Any theories about Season 2 of Anthracite would have to be based on the mid-credits teaser. With all that cult business handled to the point that a documentary crew is making a movie out of it, Ida is free to move on to other things — namely, whatever mystery is contained in the box in that grainy CCTV footage.
This, though, indicates why the show is better suited to being a limited series. Divorced from characters like Jaro and Gio, and without the personal histories that are so intimately connected to Levionna and the cult, a second season would definitely feel like it was lacking something.
Whatever would drive the narrative for another season, I still don’t think it will happen. But never say never.
