Here’s a fun fact about Adolescence (depending on your definition of “fun,” and how much you choose to associate the word with a show about the deadly effects of misogyny): the series was produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B. While Pitt’s name associated with a project about violence against women may seem a bit dubious given the givens, it certainly hasn’t affected the Netflix series’ critical acclaim or ratings success. As such, Plan B is naturally now looking towards a second season.
In an interview with Deadline, Plan B co-presidents Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner say they’ve been speaking to director Philip Barantini about the “next iteration” of the show. Adolescence may have left a few threads unpulled, but it nevertheless told a complete story. So would a second season shift focus to some other family, with some other tragedy? The Plan B execs obviously won’t give much away, except to say they’re thinking about how to “widen the aperture, stay true to its DNA, [and] not be repetitive.”
Gardner and Kleiner also hope to re-team with co-creators Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also starred in the show). Kleiner notes that “Brad is a massive fan of Stephen’s,” with whom he worked on the Guy Ritchie film Snatch. Kleiner also says the Oscar winner was “blown away” by Thorne’s script, for which they say he provided input. (For Thorne’s part, he said in a separate Deadline interview that he never got a note from Pitt, though he did offer that the actor is always early for Zoom meetings.) Over all, Pitt “was part of the energy, drive, and impetus to get the thing off the ground,” Kleiner says. And now Adolescence is off the ground and in the stratosphere for Netflix successes, so the effort undoubtedly paid off.
