Is ‘Cruel Summer’ season 2 a new story?

Cruel Summer‘s second season, though promising to be as mind-bending as its first, has no intention of keeping viewers mired in small-town Texas. Instead, the series abandons the familiar and established setting, as well as the still-fraught relationship between Jeanette and Kate, for greener pastures. OK, we aren’t sure if “greener” is the right word, but the series is taking an anthology approach to storytelling— think American Horror Story.

No, this wasn’t some split-second decision made to keep fans longing for more. Executive producer Michelle Purple says that with the outpouring of love for the characters and the first season, they seriously considered a continuation of Jeanette and Kate’s story, but they never found a way to ensure fans would continue to love the show. Their mystery solved, there was nowhere left to go in Skylin, Texas. She told TV Line, “Unfortunately, we didn’t find that it [the story] would have the legs.”

Writer and producer Tia Napoletano — an integral part of the first season — told Buzzfeed back in 2021 that the writers intend to challenge themselves for season 2, similarly to how they pushed themselves for season one. “We want to challenge ourselves with something equally impossible and mysterious and find the best version of that. We want to give people all of the answers to the clues and questions we tee up because I think that’s really satisfying.”

If that teaser trailer and the first episodes are anything to go by, they have more than succeeded in their mission to hook viewers with a delectable mystery. Napoletano continued that most of all, the writers wanted to tackle another important topic, akin to how they focused on grooming for season one. “We want to talk about something important along with the mystery and the character studies.”

Never fear, just because the story no longer focuses on the original duo doesn’t mean there are zero connections back to the first season. Michelle Purple also admitted in the aforementioned interview that “we’re playing in the same world in the sense of it’s just a few years later. So there is a tie to Season 1, but we’re not going to tell you [what it is]! You guys have to find it!”

With the continued outpouring of love for the original cast, the showrunners would be crazy to miss the opportunity to bring back the gals from season one, and we look forward to seeing them, whatever the capacity may be.