Netflix has a habit—pun very much intended—of taking seemingly ridiculous conceits (hello, Too Hot to Handle) and turning them into surprise hits. Take Warrior Nun, for instance—which, yes, is a real
show that hit the top 10 most-watched series list on Netflix when it dropped earlier this year. The story follows an young orphan named Ava, who wakes up in a morgue and soon discovers she’s been imbued with ancient abilities via an artifact embedded in her back. Oh, and she’s earned a free ticket to join the Order of the Cruciform Sword, a group of—you catching on now?—warrior nuns. Said warrior nuns have sworn to protect the world from demonic forces, though Ava’s not so sure she buys into the hype.
What follows is a lot of Supernatural-esque baddie-fighting, spiffy superpowers, and flashy outfits, but the delightful cast rescues this otherwise irreverent show from alienating its audience. As only the latest of Netflix’s successful comic book adaptations, Warrior Nun gives us little reason to doubt we’ve seen the last of Ava’s adventures. After all, we must learn what happens after the finale’s massive cliffhanger. Will we witness the epic battle between good and evil? Or will Ava hang up her halo for a life in the hills, à la Maria in TheSound of Music?
Here’s what we know so far about a second season of Warrior Nun.
Season 2 is officially on the way.
On August 19, Netflix posted an official announcement that Warrior Nun got the green light for another season. During an adorable virtual reunion that the streaming service posted to Twitter, the cast burst into cheers when showrunner Simon Barry dropped the news that they'd be reuniting soon.
Just in case you needed a lil sunbeam of positivity in your day: watch the Warrior Nun cast get the news that they've been renewed for a second season pic.twitter.com/gkidbty6ma
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) August 19, 2020
COVID-19 will likely stall production.
That said, even though Warrior Nun earned the go-ahead it deserved, it's unlikely we'll see a second season before the latter half of 2021. Given that Hollywood has shut down production throughout the coronavirus pandemic, filming will be slow to restart.
Cast members are already dropping hints about the next chapter.
Several cast members have already spoken out about their predictions for the future. In particular, Toya Turner, who plays Shotgun Mary, told ComingSoon.net, “After you watch the series, you’ll be like, oh, they’re going to go further on this."
And in an interview with Refinery 29, star Alba Baptista discussed what boundaries the series might push in its exploration of Adriel, a character with a fascinating backstory. “The writers have it all thought out for an eventual season 2,” she revealed. “…I love Adriel’s character. I think he’s so dense and he has a lot of layers to his story, which we will discover further on.”
She later added that the second season might be even more wild than the first. “[There’s] going to be a big, big reveal for an eventual season 2,” she said. “It was well thought-out. It wasn’t just an accident. It’s another plot twist for the spectators to guess on for another year. They’ll have to wait for another season.”
The showrunner has plans well beyond season 2.
Barry certainly hopes for a second season, but if he had his choice, he’d get a third, fourth and fifth as well. “Anything between five and seven seasons would be lovely," he told Inverse.
He also told CBR.com, “We had ideas out of the first season writing room that we thought would be interesting for a second season if we were lucky enough to get one. So yeah, we definitely encourage Netflix to pursue that.”
And he revealed to Looper that "we were holding back so many secrets in a way in season one. The fact that we now have the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, in terms of the mythology of the show. I think it'll be really exciting to take that journey and unpack what we've revealed."