- Normal People became one of the most popular shows of 2020.
- The series made Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal stars.
- The Normal People crew has expressed interest in a second season.
Normal People captivated audiences when it was released on April 29, 2020. The Hulu series, based on Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel, was the perfect pandemic escape and fans fell in love with Marianne and Connell’s story. Normal People made instant stars out of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, the latter of which was just nominated for his first Academy Award for his astounding performance in Aftersun.
The ending of Normal People wasn’t exactly clean-cut. The open-ended finale immediately had fans wondering about a second season. Is Normal People season 2 going to happen? Here’s what we know so far.
Is Normal People Season 2 Happening?
As of right now, Hulu has not ordered a second season of Normal People. However, the cast and crew behind the Hulu series have expressed interest in revisiting the story.
“There’s been no conversation other than the fact that I would like to lead from the front and make it happen somehow. I’m very pro-season 2, but honestly, there’s no plans in place for that to happen,” Paul told GQ in 2022.
Paul has always been game for Normal People season 2 and has been vocal about it. “I would love to do a Normal People season 2. I would work with Daisy again in a heartbeat and regardless of working with her again, I’m just really excited to see her so we can see each other again. It would be great,” the actor said at the TV BAFTAs in 2021, according to Digital Spy. “At the moment, there’s nothing at all in the pipeline so I don’t want to be quoted on ‘maybe there’s going to be a [Normal People] season 2′. There’s nothing at the moment.”
Executive producer and director Lenny Abrahamson told Deadline back in 2020 that the team had “talked about the possibility of how interesting it would be to check back in with them, but apart from just general musings and over a drink, no, there have been no concrete discussions about what it would be like. As Sally says, the book stops where it stops because it feels right. But, I have a sneaking thing in the back of my head that if everybody was willing, and if the stars aligned, I’d love to revisit them in five years and find out what happened, where they are. Is somebody a father or a mother? What relationships are they in that then get disrupted by their meeting again? But it would be really strange to pick that up eight weeks later with him traveling to New York, I think. There needs to be time.”
Is There A Normal People Sequel?
Not exactly. However, Sally sort of revealed what happens to Marianne and Connell after they go their separate ways at the end of the novel. The short story At The Clinic was published in The White Review in 2016 — before Normal People was even released — and follows Marianne and Connell on a trip to get Marianne’s wisdom tooth removed when they’re 23. The on-again, off-again pair are wrapped up in relationships with other people, but they’re still very clearly in love with one another.
Do Connell & Marianne End Up Together?
That’s open to interpretation at this point. Sally’s novel and the show leave it up to the audience whether or not Connell and Marianne ultimately end up back together after he leaves for New York. Both Daisy and Paul have thoughts on Marianne and Connell being endgame.
“I don’t know,” Daisy told Deadline. “A little bit of me imagines that they’ll always be in each other’s lives. I just don’t know if it would be in the romantic sense, but at the same time, I find that quite hard to believe, because they do have this uniquely special connection. And so, I hope that they do end up getting married and have loads of kids.”
Paul admitted that he thinks Connell would “potentially get married to somebody else.” He added, “It’ll destroy lots of people’s lives along the way because ultimately they’re going to be drawn. But they will consciously resist the idea that they’re supposed to be together. It’ll be a long process of discovery until they finally find each other permanently, I think.”
However, Paul is adamant about the couple’s ultimate fate. “I really need them to be together. If Sally ever decides to do the second book or second series, I need them to be together,” he said.
What Happened At The End Of Normal People?
After meeting in high school, Connell and Marianne’s relationship endured several ups and downs as they navigated college and life after university. They both dated other people, but they were always drawn back to each other.
At the end of the first season, Connell and Marianne are finally in a relationship and have grown closer than ever. They start living together in an apartment in Dublin. Connell applies for an MFA program in New York and gets accepted. At first, Connell doesn’t want to go and leave Marianne. She encourages him to take his amazing opportunity.
He asks her to come with him to New York. She declines his offer because she wants to stay in Dublin. “I’d miss you too much. I’d be sick,” Connell says. Marianne tells him that he’d only feel pain at first, and then things would get better. He initially thinks he’ll be back in a year, but Marianne stresses that they don’t know where either of them will be by then.
“You know I love you, and I’m never going to feel the same way for anyone else,” Connell says to Marianne. He agrees to go to New York, while she’ll stay behind in Dublin. They promise they’ll be okay.
Both Paul and Daisy have opened up about how they feel about the show’s ending. “Oh, there’s no question that character to me is still alive and breathing and very much has a lot of life left to live and has a relationship with Marianne that is maybe unfinished,” Paul Mail Online in May 2020.
Daisy revealed that she approves of how things are left open at the end of the book and show. “That’s what’s so wonderful about the book,” she told NME. “At the end, they’re very much alive and you’re left not knowing where they’re gonna go. It’s upsetting to read, but it’s also quite thrilling and realistic. We’ve left the series in a similar way. I think it’s quite interesting to leave it open.”