HBO’s Lovecraft Country, an adaptation of Matt Ruff’s X-Files-meets-Jim-Crow novel of the same name, had a pretty solid, satisfying ending, but set up plenty of intriguing stuff just in case the show got another season. Will HBO bring the series back for Season 2, sending the Freeman-Dandridge family on all-new, horrifying adventures? Read on to find out what we know. 

Has Lovecraft Country been renewed for Season 2?

HBO has not said officially if the show has been renewed, but creator Misha Green did say, after the season finale, that “nothing’s official” but she and HBO are talking about it. Given how unfamiliar and complex filming schedules are now, since we’re still dealing with a pandemic, it takes a lot for a show to get and keep a renewal these days. We’ll see!

In February 2021, HBO’s Casey Bloys told Deadline he was “very hopeful” for a second season, and that the writers were indeed working on one as we speak: “Misha is working with a small team of writers and they’re coming up with a take. She had a book to go on in the first season, she and the writers wanted to go off and take some time to go out and figure out, without a book with these characters, what’s the journey we want to go on. We all want to be sure she’s got a story to tell. That’s where she is right now, working on those ideas.” (Green has also been tapped to write and direct the next Tomb Raider movie, a sequel to the 2018 video game adaptation starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.) 

When would it premiere?

HBO would have to really get going for a second season to premiere around August 2021, the same as it did in 2020, so we might be waiting until 2022 if that’s what it takes. 

Who would be in the cast?

It’s likely that most of the cast would return, minus Atticus Freeman (played by Jonathan Majors) and the Braithewhites, who are very much dead. Those left alive at the end of the first season include Journee Smollett, who plays Leti; Aunjanue Ellis, who plays Hippolyta; Jada Harris, who plays Diana; and Michael Kenneth Williams, who plays Montrose. Given the show’s penchant for alternate universes and time travel, though, Majors could return, either in the form of a new version of Atticus, a new character entirely, or the adult version of Leti’s son George, whom he appears as in photographs. 

Isn’t the book over? What could a new season be about?

There are plenty of threads to build multiple new seasons on, which we theorized about after the first season finale. Diana Freeman has what every little girl has ever wanted: a loyal pet Shoggoth to save her from dark magic attacks. Her mother Hippolyta has the power to open wormholes into different times and even different planets, Leti knows that her future son George will grow up to write a book about the family adventures, and Ji-Ah, possessed by a kumiho demon, still has to lift her curse. Crucially, Atticus’ spell has blocked all white people from using magic forever-but as we know from watching the first season, it’s not always the magical white people who are the most frightening. Need help finding something to watch? Sign up here for our weekly Streamail newsletter to get streaming recommendations delivered straight to your inbox.

Emma Stefansky is a staff entertainment writer at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @stefabsky.