Netflix is heading back to Texas for another round of The Hunting Wives.
The sexed-up summer sensation from Lionsgate has been renewed for a second season at the streamer. The original cast led by Brittany Snow and Malin Akerman will reprise their roles.
“I’m so excited to write these amazing characters again, and I can’t wait to take the audience on another sexy, twisted, batshit crazy ride through Maple Brook,” said creator/writer/showrunner Rebecca Cutter.
Created by Cutter and based on the bestselling novel by May Cobb, The Hunting Wives became a streaming success for Netflix after acquiring the twisty murder drama that was originally produced for Starz, where Cutter had her three-season series Hightown. Producers Lionsgate Television and 3 Arts Entertainment pivoted the series to Netflix in the lead up to Starz’s split from Lionsgate in May (which became official this summer). Netflix released The Hunting Wives weeks later, on July 21, and it became the most-viewed streaming series in the U.S. after spending five weeks in the Top 10.
While the first season was a Netflix U.S. offering, season two will release exclusively as a Netflix branded series in nearly all countries the streamer is available. The returning cast includes Jaime Ray Newman, Dermot Mulroney, Evan Jonigkeit and George Ferrier.
The success of the buzzy drama also surged sales for Cobb’s 2021 besteller. Publisher Berkley has gone back to press twice on the trade paperback since premiere week, and saw a 5,000 percent increase across all formats in year-over-year weekly sales following the show’s release, according to Christine Ball, evp & publisher.
When speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about the show’s future, while awaiting the renewal, Cutter had detailed how Cobb supported the major changes she made from the book, which set up the series to continue on after a cliffhanger finale that questioned the central relationship between Snow and Akerman’s characters — new girl in town Sophie and queen bee Margo, respectively. “Even when it was at Starz, it was never, in my mind, a limited series,” said Cutter of her plan for more Hunting Wives. “From what I gather, doing more than three [seasons] is hard, so three is a great number. But I could do it forever. It’s so fun. The girls are so fun. We love it.”
Cutter also weighed in on The Hunting Wives effect, which included bringing both sex and culture wars back to television by centering the erotic main plot around a conservative clique in East Texas and having a Democrat (Sophie) roll into town. “I’ve heard some people say that the show is part of this new mandate to make red-state content, and that wasn’t what it was. I mean, it was for horny middle-aged women,” she said.
The second season will be a continuation of the storyline and characters from season one, based on an original script from Cutter. Here’s the official logline: “At the start of season two, Sophie and Margo are on the outs. But soon enough, old secrets and new foes force them back together. As they play their dangerous games the question arises. Are they the hunters or the hunted?”
Snow and Akerman played into the viral viewer reactions (and that cliffhanger ending) when announcing the news on social media Friday. (Watch, below.)
Erwin Stoff is an executive producer for 3 Arts Entertainment, along with Cobb and Cutter. Cutter’s crime drama Hightown is also now streaming on Netflix. She is currently in development on another project for Netflix with Jerry Bruckheimer Television and is repped by CAA, Artists Collective and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein.
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