One of the most popular true crime documentaries in recent history, Netflix's Making a Murderer arguably served as the kick-off point for the current small-screen wave of both fiction and nonfiction programs that chronicle the ins and outs of real cases. This wave has so far included notable titles like FX's critically acclaimed drama The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and Netflix's own documentary looking at the famous Amanda Knox case.

Even more impressively, America's collective fascination with Making a Murderer eventually led to the conviction of co-defendant Brendan Dassey being overturned, with a judge ordering his release from prison. An appeals court has since blocked Dassey's exit from incarceration for the time being, although his ultimate fate is clearly not done being determined. Steven Avery - the primary defendant in the murder of Teresa Halbach - also currently remains incarcerated, serving a life sentence for the crime. Still, for a true crime documentary to lead to an overturned conviction is almost unheard of.

After Making a Murderer made such a large cultural impact, it never really seemed in question that Netflix would order a second season of the series. However, what has never been clear is when exactly this new batch of episodes would premiere, or what exactly they would be about. While that second question is still up in the air, Netflix confirmed during a recent interview with USA Today that Making a Murderer season 2 will indeed arrive on the service sometime in 2017.

Unfortunately, an exact timetable for when season 2 will debut has yet to be provided, with Netflix Original Content VP Cindy Holland admitting that "we don't know for sure when new episodes will be coming." According to Holland, part of the reason for this is trying to maintain a level of secrecy about what exactly filmmakers Moira Demos and Laura Riccardi are working on:

"Laura and Moira are (in Manitowoc) shooting regularly and working on what the right story is to tell in the next set, so we’re deferring to them on when it will be ready. Very few people inside of Netflix actually know the details of what we’re getting because we’re wanting to keep it really under wraps and it is an ongoing case so we’re trying to be sensitive to that."

With a 2017 premiere seemingly confirmed, the biggest question now becomes what "ongoing case" season 2 will focus on. Will Dassey and Avery's efforts to be released for crimes they both maintain they did not commit be chronicled further, or will a completely different alleged miscarriage of justice be covered? Either way, it'll be interesting to see whether the series will have as big of a real-world impact in its second outing.

Next: Making A Murderer: One Year Later

Making a Murderer season 2 premieres sometime in 2017.

Source: USA Today