Netflix's The Watcher is headed back to the streamer for a Season 2, but what can fans expect for this second outing of the fan-favorite thriller?
Loosely based on a 2018 article by Reeves Wiedeman for New York magazine's website The Cut, The Watcher follows a married couple who are terrifyingly stalked by way of letters after moving into a new house.
Starring the likes of Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale, Season 1 of The Watcher earned a middling 56% Tomatometer average on Rotten Tomatoes, but it was still a smash hit on the Netflix service.
The show was the most streamed program on Netflix over its first week, racking up over 125 million hours watched in a mere five days (via Deadline) and warranting the streamer to announce a Season 2.
When Will The Watcher Season 2 be Released on Netflix?
No official release timing has been made public for Netflix's The Watcher Season 2, but some have speculated it could drop on the service sometime in 2024.
While Season 1 was initially developed as a limited series on the streamer, the resounding success of that first run warranted the Ryan Murphy-developed TV show to get a second season.
Season 2 was first revealed by Variety in November 2022 - a mere month after Season 1's debut.
At the time, Netflix’s head of global TV Bela Bajaria remarked, "Audiences can’t take their eyes off [The Watcher]" and the platform was "thrilled to continue telling stories in [that universe]:"
“Audiences can’t take their eyes off ‘Monster’ and ‘The Watcher,' The creative team of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan on ‘Monster’ along with Eric Newman on ‘The Watcher’ are masterful storytellers who captivated audiences all over the world. The back-to-back force of these two series is due to Ryan’s distinct original voice which created cultural sensations and we are thrilled to continue telling stories in the ‘Monster’ and ‘Watcher’ universes.”
With the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike now having come to a close, production on The Watcher Season 2 can start in earnest.
If the series gets in front of cameras before the end of the year, then audiences can likely expect it sometime in late 2024 or early 2025. The first season featured quite a long production timeline, but that was largely thanks to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given Hollywood has learned to work around the virus, production on Season 2 will likely not take nearly as long.
Who Will Return in The Watcher Season 2?
As it stands, it remains unclear if anyone from The Watcher Season 1 will return for the second batch of episodes.
Creator Ryan Murphy is no stranger to anthology storytelling (having worked on hits like American Horror Story and Netflix's Monster), so there is always the chance The Watcher Season 2 could tell a whole new story with a new cast.
However, if Season 2 proves to be a continuation of the first's story, then there are a handful of names fans can probably expect to grace their screens.
At the center of Season 1 was Naomi Watts' Nora Brannock and Bobby Cannavale's Dean Brannock. Season 1 saw Nora and Bobby finally move into their dream home only to be tormented by a mysterious stalker-like figure known as the Watcher.
Given the Watcher's identity remained a mystery even after credits rolled on the Season 1 finale, there looks to be a pretty good chance the Brannocks will return for more terrifying hijinks.
Other Season 1 characters that could pop back up in Season 2 include:
- Isabel Gravitt as Ellie Brannock
- Luke David Blumm as Carter Brannock
- Jennifer Coolidge as Karen Calhoun
- Margo Martindale as Maureen / Mo
- Richard Kind as Mitch
- Mia Farrow as Pearl Winslow
- Terry Kinney as Jasper Winslow
- Christopher McDonald as Det. Rourke Chamberland
- Joe Mantello as William "Bill" Webster / John Graff
- Henry Hunter Hall as Dakota
Will The Watcher's Identity be Revealed in Season 2?
One of the biggest mysteries coming out of The Watch Season 1 was who exactly is the titular stalker at the heart of the series.
While there are plenty of theories among fans, Ryan Murphy and the Watcher team have remained tight-lipped on who the culprit is.
According to stars Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale (via Entertainment Weekly), the cast doesn't even know who the Watcher is despite heading into Season 2.
Watts told reporters in April 2023, "We didn't know, and we still don't know," but remarked that she "love[s] that:"
"We didn't know, and we still don't know/ I loved that. I loved not knowing. I think that we knew the story and that was unresolved, and I liked how this couple — who started off in a great place, seemed to be enjoying life and reaching their dreams and still having sex, everything is peachy — become unraveled by this situation and turn on each other. They tried first to attack the problem together very much as a united front, but they turn on each other. That's good drama."
Cannavale added he feels "the same way," opining that "it didn't really matter to [him]" who the Watcher was but what they "put these people through:"
"I'm really glad that we don't know. It took me back to the first conversation I had with [Ryan] about this whole thing: COVID, what the f--- is this thing? What is it doing to us, and the states of how everybody was affected by it in different ways? He came up with the idea during [the pandemic] — he wrote it during that — so it was always sort of metaphorical for me: loss of control, loss of power, loss of protective ability. So, in the end, it didn't really matter to me. What mattered was what it put these people through."
So, it seems as though the Watcher's identity may remain shrouded in shadow as The Watcher marches into Season 2 and perhaps even beyond that.
The Watcher Season 2 is expected to come to Netflix sometime in 2024.
LATEST NEWS
