Netflix’s biggest surprise hit of the year just got renewed for a second season

It’s been a turbulent year for Netflix, which has still been churning out plenty of big-name, big-budget original series and films in the face of tricky economic conditions and a shifting streaming landscape. 

You can imagine, then, the surprise and delight to be had when the streaming service revealed that it has ordered a second season of the breakout Australian teen series Heartbreak High.

Initially thought to mainly have struck a chord with nostalgic Australian audiences who remember the original series from the 1990s, the reimagining managed to capture hearts on a global scale, with the series metrics staying quite healthy for three weeks following its release.

Heartbreak High features an ensemble cast following the lives of students and teachers at Hartley High, and how the former navigate all of the usual coming-of-age dilemmas.

While the young adult series was outmatched by the likes of DAHMER: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, it still managed to rub shoulders with Netflix’s biggest, saddest and most controversial series in the rankings.

It debuted as the sixth most-watched series on the service in its first week, before peaking the following week at number five between Cobra Kai and The Crown. It enjoyed one more week in the top 10, slipping back to number eight, before dropping off in early October.

DAHMER remained the dominant TV show over that period, holding onto the number one spot and not letting go.

Season two of Heartbreak High is reported to be entering pre-production sometime soon in Sydney, Australia.