Season 2 of Netflix's 13 Reasons Why will have a different narrator, but the character of Hannah will continue to play a central role.
[SPOILERS for 13 Reasons Why season 1 ahead.]
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13 Reasons Whywill keep the same narrator format for its second season, but Hannah Baker won't take on that role. The first season of Netflix's controversial 13 Reasons Why, followed Hannah as she narrated the last few days of her life, documenting the events that lead to her decision to commit suicide. The show was made up of a mixture of scenes that took place in the present, after Hannah's death, and in the past, with Hannah featuring in flashbacks.
An adaptation of the YA novel of the same name by Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why has been a big hit for Netflix, and despite there being no second book, the streaming service has quickly ordered a second season. With Hannah's death featuring as the end of season one, questions over exactly what format season two xould take have been bubbling for some time. Showrunner Brian Yorkey, and Katherine Langford, who plays Hannah, spoke more about season two at a Netflix For Your Consideration panel.
With filming set to begin next week, Yorkey isn't giving much away regarding the exact plot of 13 Reasons Why season 2, but he did reveal that we can expect to see a re-telling of the events of season one, but this time from a different perspective (via Mashable):
"What I can tell you is that certainly one question I get a lot is, 'How can there be a Season 2 when the story's over?' My response is, 'What story is over?''Well, Hannah's story is over.' Well, Hannah told her version of events, but there are at least 12 kids who have another version of those events that we actually haven't really heard from yet. So I think there's quite a bit more of Hannah's story to tell."
"I think Season 2 will see us look at a lot of the events that we think we know how they went down and maybe learn they're more complicated than first we thought, and that Hannah herself is even more complicated than we saw in Season 1."
Yorkey stressed that he doesn't think Hannah lied about events, including her brutal rape at the hands of Football captain, Bryce, but rather that she 'reclaimed her narrative' that had been taken from her. There is always more than one side to a story, and with Hannah's story, as Yorkey points out, there's at least 12; maybe more, if you think about how her parents, or teachers viewed her story, too. We pretty much know how Clay saw Hannah, but others, such as Tony, had conflicting feelings about her. In one scene, he described her as 'a drama,' but he also went out of his way to follow through on her wishes after she had died.
Yorkey also said that season 2 will look at the process of healing; how characters such as Olivia Baker and Clay try to move on from such a monumental event. But the second season will also feature Langford back again as Hannah, and we will see scenes of her life that we didn't see in season one, as Langford explains:
"We're going to see parts of Hannah's life that we didn't in Season 1. We haven't really gone into that much detail but I know that we're going to continue that dialogue and keep developing the story. I would love to see the quieter moments in Hannah's life that we didn't get to see covered in Season 1. It would be really interesting to see some of those missing pieces. And I'm really excited to see who the new narrator is."
The list of possible narrators is long; Clay is an obvious option, or Tony, but there's also Jessica, Alex, or even Bryce. 13 Reasons Why season 2 is said to continue to tell real stories that relate to real kids, so expect plenty more controversy and discussion to come.
