In the interview, Yorkey says season two will pick up just a few months after season one ended, highlighting the trial that follows high school student Hannah’s (Katherine Langford) suicide and provide a deeper look into how her death has affected everyone and additional context for some of the events that took place.
Hannah will return, and the format will continue to include present day as well as flashbacks. All unresolved storylines will be explored. What happened to Alex (Miles Heizer), who suffered a gunshot to the head at the end of season one; Bryce (Justin Prentice), who has been outed as a serial rapist; Tyler (Devin Druid), who was seen secretly stockpiling weapons in his bedroom; and Jessica (Alisha Boe) as she deals with life as a rape victim.
Yorkey suggests that we will get a deeper look into the lives of the people Hannah featured on each of her tapes, presumably this time from their perspective. There will be voiceovers, but not Hannah’s.
He also promises the reveal of additional secrets to help fill in gaps about Hannah’s life. And while the cassette tapes were integral to season one, season two will focus on another piece of analog technology that Yorkey jokes 13-year-olds will have to “Google and try to understand what it was.”
The series received a lot of criticism for its graphic depictions of sexual assault and suicide (warnings appear before each of the most graphic episodes), but Yorkey says the goal is to look at the way we grieve, recover, and “learn to take better care of each other … the way we raise boys up into men and the way we treat girls and women in our culture — and what we could do better in both cases.”
The second season of 13 Reasons Why will be available for streaming on Netflix sometime in 2018.
