The day has finally come, “The OA” fans: Netflix has announced the second season of Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij’s ambitious series will debut in March, well over two years since the first season debuted in December 2016. The streaming giant has premiered the first official trailer for the new season (embedded below), and it’s full of the kind of cryptic mysteries and science-fiction mind-bending that turned the first batch of episodes into a cult favorite.
Marling returns in “The OA: Part 2” as Prairie, although this time the series is heading to an alternate reality. When “Part 2” begins, Prairie has transported her consciousness into an alternate-universe version of herself, one that is rich and lives in San Francisco. The alternate-reality version of Prairie was never kidnapped or tested on (AKA the events of the first season) and teams up with a private detective (Kingsley Ben-Adir) to investigate the disappearance of a young woman. Back in the original reality, Prairie’s disciples attempt to investigate the truth behind her existence.
“It was really delicious to dive back into a realm you had been intimate with and land in the body of someone who had not been through all the experiences we watch Prairie go through in Part I,” Marling told Entertainment Weekly about the new season.
“We think of ‘Part 2’ as very much a noir,” added Batmanglij, “We wanted to come in through the character of a cynical detective. Films like ‘The Big Sleep’ didn’t seem antiquated [when they came out]. They were very modern. That’s why we thought, ‘What better place than San Francisco and the tech world to set a noir today?’”
“The OA: Part 2” will be available to stream on Netflix beginning March 22. Watch the official trailer below.