The OA is an interesting case in this era of Peak TV. Like many binge-worthy Netflix series, the mysterious drama from co-creators Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij seemed to come out of nowhere, generate a lot of interest for a couple of weeks, and then disappear into the sea of other worthy TV shows on an increasingly dizzying variety of content-providing platforms. With so much material available, the window to capitalize on viewers' interest is rapidly shrinking. So with the exception of the fraction of fans of The OA who now form the core of the fandom, I'd be willing to bet that general audiences have all but forgotten about 2016's arrival of Season 1 of the series.

But Season 2 is still on the way, says Marling. The reason behind the delay? A non-traditional production process that puts the onus on the series' co-creators and doesn't have the luxury of leaning on adapting previous works as a crutch. Marling also stressed that The OA is a "new kind of storytelling" that's "neither film nor TV", so the show doesn't abide by the typical pattern (or planning) of production; it's more art than artificial. That's all well and good, but the studio production process is in place for a reason: It's efficient, it's predictable when it comes to scheduling, and it works. It may be less artistically inclined, but it's more reliable. This is all to say, don't expect to see Season 2 The OA on any kind of time table until the creatives behind the scenes believe it's ready for the world to see it.

Marling took to Instagram to update fans on the second season of The OA (with thanks to IndieWire for doing the legwork on the transcriptions):

[EMBED_INSTA]https://www.instagram.com/p/BppZ3UFB5V3/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading[/EMBED_INSTA]

Here's a bit of Marling's explanation:

TV shows are created on a yearly cycle primarily because they function off a pattern narrative. The show creator acts as a master tailor – she crafts the pattern for the original garment (pilot). Then other great tailors come in and create new garments out of this same pattern. This allows for creation with great speed and also familiarity, which is one of the things we all love about great TV.

 

Our chapters vary in length, scope, and even genre. There is no pattern. As a result, at every step along the way nothing can be imitated, it has to be invented.

 

The same is true for editing. An editor may solve how best to cut chapter 3, but that learning curve doesn’t apply to chapter 5, which is a completely different genre of storytelling.

The OA Season 2 is expected to debut on Netflix sometime in 2019. For more on The OA, check out our related write-ups:

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