Judy Blume’s iconic novel about young love, Forever, was reimagined for Netflix by showrunner and executive producer Mara Brock Akil and premiered on May 8. The original story was known for its very realistic portrayal of sex and relationships amongst young people, which was quite controversial at the time of its publication in 1975.
But about 50 years later, Forever fits perfectly into our current era, where many of the same issues around self-discovery and connection remain the same. So, will there be a season 2 of Forever? Here’s what we know so far.
Has Forever been confirmed for a season 2?
Not yet. But in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Brock Akil said she was open to it.
“There’s absolutely room for that,” she shared. “In this art form, I don’t make it for myself. I’m making it for an audience. I believe that the audience wants character-driven, complex love stories. If the audience wants more, I want more. Let’s go do it.”
But as a veteran in the TV business, Akil knows it’s possible that Forever doesn’t continue. She explained to TheWrap that the season 1 concludes with an open-ended finale in case the show isn’t renewed.
“You’re meeting me at a time that I’m living completely in the moment. I don’t have a season 2 right now. I have a season 1 that I’m so proud of,” Akil said. “I wanted to also be able to, in case there wasn’t [a season 2]—because we are in a business where sometimes the show goes on, and you want it to go on but it doesn’t, for whatever reasons.”
She added, referencing the cancelations of her past shows like Girlfriends and The Game, “My career is littered with unceremonious endings. So I needed for me, for Mara in this moment and for these characters, to write something that if we never saw it again, we would be satisfied. And it would also pace with the book, but also leave it where there’s so much possibility and beauty for them to continue.”
A scene from the Forever season 1 finale.
What would happen in a season 2 of Forever?
The first season essentially covers the main story in Blume’s book, while reimagining the protagonists and their specific challenges. Season 1 is set in 2019 Los Angeles. In her interview with EW, Brock Akil discussed how having the leads, Keisha and Justin, be young Black teens changed the issues at the forefront of her mind as she developed their story.
“For young women, we’re worried about pregnancy primarily disrupting our future,” Brock Akil said. “For a Black mother raising a Black boy, I’m most concerned with: Is he going to live in this modern era?”
Sex is central to the story and it is meant to be a positive portrayal of exploration,
“Keisha was his [Justin’s] journey through that to find what desire feels like,” Brock Akil said. “He was doing the best he can with what he’s got, but now that he knows what he wants, he needs to figure out who he is outside of Keisha.”
The season ends with Justin and Keisha splitting up after realizing their college plans don’t fit together. Keisha heads to Howard University while Justin takes a break and defers his acceptance to Northwestern to pursue music. They do bump into one another at a CVS where Justin is working, in a bittersweet and hopeful moment.
A season 2 might see them come back together, but Brock Akil seems primarily interested in how the two teens will discover themselves as they head into early adulthood.
“What I love about the ending and the complexity is that love is intact,” Brock Akil explained. “Though they broke up to go their separate ways to embrace more of who they are, they did it in love.”
She added that if they get back together it “will be love.”
“I’m really excited about young people showing all of us the way in terms of how to transition from relationships without it having to be destructive,” she continued. “We don’t need any more of that.”
Who would be in the season 2 cast?
The stars of the show, Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr., would be expected back as the main characters, Keisha and Justin. Other recurring cast included Xosha Roquemore, Karen Pittman, Wood Harris, Marvin Lawrence Winans III, Barry Shabaka Henley, Niles Fitch, and Ali Gallo.
This post will be updated.
