Netflix’s Hollywood could get a second season and we couldn’t be more thrilled
- Posted by
- Anna Brech
- Published
Can’t get enough of Netflix’s Hollywood? The series’ producers have hinted that they’ve already got eyes on season two.
It’s the fantastic Netflix series that has had us all gripped this month. Hollywood reexamines the movie industry’s golden age through the eyes of a group of actors and filmmakers intent on breaking the mould of cinematic production in the 1930s.
Based on real life events but with a rose-tinted twist, Hollywood asks what it would be like to live in a world that is free from the entrenched narratives of racism, sexism and sexual censure that dominated film-making of the era.
Even with so much brilliant content around at the moment, it’s a breath of fresh air in the realm of original TV series. Bring together glamour and high-octane entertainment, it revisits history with a side helping of aspirational rigour.
And while the show was originally designed as a limited edition series, it now seems likely that it’ll return for another season loaded with yet more old-school Hollywood allure.
The series’ co-creator Ryan Murphy and executive producer Janet Mock have separately drummed up hope of a next-season return by chatting to fans on social media.
A few days ago, someone on Instagram asked Murphy whether producers were planning on season two of Hollywood with the same cast.
“Well HOLLYWOOD was planned as a Limited series, but it’s become so popular that everyone is asking for another season,” Murphy replied. “So who knows? I sure do love this cast though. xo”
Needless to say, the response sparked huge excitement among those watching the thread. “Please say yes!” and “I NEED a season two” were among a flood of typical responses that followed.
Meanwhile on Twitter, the show’s executive producer, Janet Mock, added her own fuel to the sequel speculation.
When someone suggested creating a season two of Hollywood in a different era and with new characters – but with the same cast – Mock responded, “We have a very similar vision… IF we were to tell another HOLLYWOOD story.”
Hollywood may be filled with fictional magic at its heart, but it draws from real-life events and characters that populated the movie industry in its heyday of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.
These include Anna May Wong, a Chinese-American actor who found fame in silent movies from the 1920s onwards, but whose career was blighted by mindless racism and stereotyped roles.
The show also zooms in on the story of Hattie McDaniel, the first black actor to win an Oscar. It was a huge moment for racial politics at the time, but McDaniel was unable even to sit at the same table as her cast members in a segregated hotel to receive the honour.
Hollywood also recalls the story of Rock Hudson, a legendary screen icon who was forced to suppress the fact that he was homosexual.
Using TV to reimagine history for a cast of real-life characters is such a simple yet inspired formula, it’s easy to see how the producers of Hollywood could apply it again to another period in time.
And with the first season of the show already notching up an enormous and giddily appreciative fanbase, it’s not hard to imagine how season two will get the sign-off from Netflix bosses.
Images: Netflix