‘The Beast In Me’ Renewed For Season 2 With Claire Danes Reprising Role; Howard Gordon Back With Netflix Overall Deal

Aggie Wiggs may be writing a sequel to her The Beast In Me book. Netflix has ordered a second season of breakout limited series The Beast In Me, with Claire Danes back reprising her Emmy-nominated role and executive producing. Also returning are Season 1 writers/executive producers Howard Gordon and Daniel Pearle.

Gordon, who served as showrunner, will share co-showrunner responsibilities with Pearle in Season 2. (He previously elevated Pearle to co-showrunner for Season 2 of his Fox’s series Accused.) Additionally, Gordon has signed an overall deal with Netflix to develop new series exclusively for the global streamer through his Teakwood Lane Productions banner.

The Beast In Me comes from an outside studio, 20th Television, where Gordon and Danes had deals stemming from their joint tenure on Homeland and Gordon’s on 24 before that.

Gordon, Pearle and Danes will executive produce Season 2 alongside series creator Gabe Rotter and fellow Season 1 executive producers Antonio Campos, who directed half of the S1 episodes, Caroline Baron, Amy Lippman, Gabe Rotter, Conan O’Brien, David Kissinger, Jeff Ross and Jodie Foster.

This is the latest Netflix limited series to be extended following the success of its original installment. The Beast In Me follows the blueprint of Untamed, which also became a drama series with its lead character, played by Eric Bana, continuing his journey in a new location with a new story. Netflix took the anthology route with Beef, which came back for a second season featuring all new cast of characters with no ties to Season 1.

In an interview with Deadline at the time of The Beast In Me’s launch last November, Gordon left the door open to a followup.

“It was meant to be a limited series. It certainly is possible, because whoever is left standing at the end of this is still around, and I think if there’s a story, we’d be up for it,” Gordon said, adding, “I do think that there’s certainly room for another chapter.”

In a statement accompanying the Season 2 announcement, Gordon reflected on the decision to continue Aggie’s story, acknowledging Netflix Head of Scripted Series Jinny Howe and 20th Television President Karey Burke.

“We always told ourselves we’d only do a second season of The Beast in Me if we found a story that was worthy of the first – and I’m thrilled to say we found it,” he said. “We loved making this show and our audience seemed to love watching it, so we’re enormously grateful to Jinny Howe and Netflix, and to Karey Burke and 20th Television for giving us the chance to get the band back together and do it again.”

Season 1 of The Beast In Me followed the cat-and-mouse game between acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Danes), grieving the tragic death of her young son, and her charming and scary new neighbor Nile Sheldon (Rhys) who was the prime suspect in his first wife’s disappearance. The installment ended with Sheldon’s murder in prison, Aggie taking responsibilities for her actions and publishing her book The Beast In Me.

Conversations about a potential second season started shortly after The Beast in Me debuted at #1 in the Netflix Global Top 10 shows, reaching the top 10 in 88 countries, en route to garnering 43M views in its first seven weeks. The development process for the new installment is well underway, with casting for the new leads alongside Danes in advanced stages.

Since The Beast In Me‘s Season 2 renewal was not confirmed until now, the first season competed as a limited series throughout its awards run, including at the Emmys, where it earned nine nominations, including for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Lead Actress In a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (Danes) and Lead Actor (Rhys). It won two, for Lead Actor and Original Dramatic Score. Rhys became the first performer to win two lead acting categories in the same year (He also won the Lead Comedy Actor trophy for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay) and the first with a career sweep of all three lead acting categories. (He previously won Lead Drama Actor for FX’s The Americans.)

“We are thrilled to bring back The Beast in Me and to welcome Howard Gordon to the Netflix family with this creative partnership,” Howe said. “The series captivated global audiences, delivered extraordinary performances led by Claire Danes, and earned Matthew Rhys a historic Emmy win. We are incredibly proud of what Howard Gordon, Gabe Rotter, and the entire cast and crew achieved. We can’t wait for audiences to see what Howard and Daniel Pearle have in store for the next season.”

With Season 2, The Beast In Me will transition to Drama Series awards contention, similar to HBO’s Big Little Lies and The While Lotus, which also made the switch after Season 1.