Will The Queen’s Gambit Be Renewed for Another Season? Here’s Everything We Know

From Oprah Magazine

• The Queen's Gambit premiered on Netflix on October 23, and it is based on a 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis.

• Since its release, the limited series has grown widely popular, with 62 million households viewing making it Netflix's biggest limited scripted series to date.

• Here, everything we were able to find out about whether or not there will be a season 2 for The Queen's Gambit.

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Queen's Gambit.

It didn’t take long for Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit to soar to the streaming service’s top favorites, or to create a stir on social media. And if you're wondering what the fuss is all about, you may be shocked to learn—if you hadn't watched already—that the hype is around a series about the quiet game of...chess.

Much of the credit is attributed to breakout star Anya Taylor-Joy, who has enchanted audiences—62 million households in its first 28 days, in fact, according to Netflix—with her stellar lead performance as Beth Harmon, an orphan who was taught how to play chess by the orphanage’s janitor in the 1960s. Harmon grows up into a quirky chess player battling a pill addiction as well as the odds against her as a female in the sport—all while showing off her impressive sense of style.

Though Harmon proves to be a powerful natural player from episode to episode, her biggest challenge arrives when it's time to face Russian World Champion Vasily Borgov at the end of season 1. With stunning visuals and subtle choreography, series director and writer Scott Frank takes viewers inside the world of chess, saturating us with details of chess history, sequences, and literature that somehow, even non-chess players can appreciate.

Like the game of chess, the storytelling in this series is tactical, strategically weaving details of Harmon’s past burdens of addiction, abandonment, and defeat as elements that she eventually learns to overcome. Her growth in the show is a testament to her approach in chess: using her disadvantages to become an advantageous, fierce player. Checkmate.

The series is thrilling and perfectly satisfying—so much so that it's left many of us yearning for more. That leaves the question: Will there be a season 2 of The Queen's Gambit? Ultimately, the next move is up to Netflix, but here’s what we know so far about what the chances are.

The Queen’s Gambit premiered as a limited series—but it could still continue.

Netflix produced The Queen’s Gambit as a limited series, which as its title suggests, is meant to be, well…limited. But, of course, that was before the show became its most-watched scripted limited series ever.

In a November announcement from the streaming company, Netflix revealed that the series was an unexpectedly huge win. “On Netflix, a record-setting 62 million households chose to watch The Queen’s Gambit in its first 28 days,” the statement said. The company also reported that the show made the top 10 in 92 countries, and ranked number 1 in 63 countries.

And though there is no independent reporting for ratings outside of the streaming service, the show is breaking records off-screen, too. 37 years after its release, The Queen's Gambit novel is now on The New York Times Best Seller list, in the category for paperback trade fiction.

In November, NPR reported that sales for chess sets have also recently skyrocketed. Mary Higbe, director of marketing at Goliath Games told the site: "Our October sales for chess were up 178% over the same period last year." She noted, thatafter the series release, "chess sales are up 1,048%."

Plainly put, nothing has been confirmed about another season, but the excitement that the series has stirred would certainly be hard for Netflix to ignore.

If there is a season 2, it would have to move forward without the plot of the book.

The series is based off of the 1983 novel The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis, who was a chess player himself.

Faithfully following the book, the series ends with Beth Harmon defeating Borgov. Here’s an excerpt from the book of the winning moment.

And since the adaptation follows the book, and the book ends with victory, the hypothetical renewal would have to be a new creation of its own. We’ve seen other cases of streaming networks renewing series beyond their printed counterparts, such as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and HBO’s Big Little Lies.

The cast seems to be open to another season...sort of.

The star-studded cast includes Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Benny Watts, Harry Potter alum Harry Melling as Harry Beltik, and Marcin Dorociński as Vasily Borgov.

Speaking to Town and Country, the show's executive producer William Horberg said: “The last scene feels like a beautiful note to end the show on, so I’m not sure if we want to go on and answer that question. Maybe we can just let the audience imagine what comes next.”

Meanwhile, Anya Taylor-Joy told T&C: “I adore the character, and I would certainly come back if I was asked to, but I do think we leave Beth in a good place. I think the rest of her life will surely be an adventure as well, but in the quest that she goes on in this to find some form of peace, just some form of being able to be happy with who she is. I think it ends in a nice place.”

So what could a season 2 for Beth Harmon be about?

Beth Harmon ends The Queen's Gambit as the chess World Champion. So what happens to a character in a fictional tv show after they become the best? Of course, users on social media have given their theories for a sequel—and their opinions on whether it's best to leave The Queen's Gambit where it is.

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