Here’s what we can expect for season 2 of Netflix’s Russian Doll

With rumors of a second season, we speculate on what could be next on the agenda for Netflix’s hit series Russian Doll

Warning: Spoilers ahead for the first season of Russian Doll. 

If you are anything like us (and the rest of Twitter), you’ve already streamed the entirety of Netflix’s new show Russian Doll. Bold, original, and from the minds of Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, Lyonne stars as Nadia — a young woman trapped in a time loop which begins at her 36th birthday party and continually ends in her death.

Is it a drug-fuelled trip? Is it limbo? Nadia, through copious amounts of alcohol and cigarettes, attempts to find out. On her way, she meets Alan (Charlie Barnett) and they quickly realize that they are both suffering the same fate.

With a brilliant cast and a captivating story, the show’s first season was practically perfect even if it did leave a lot of unanswered questions. To close the time loop it turns out that Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) needed to confront their unresolved traumas but there are a few things we’re still not clear on.

Photo Credit: Netflix

What happened to all the animals (Oatmeal definitely had something to do with the whole thing)? Did Horse, the homeless man from Tompkins Square Park, know what was going on the entire time? And are Nadia and Alan now destined to live in separate universes forever more?

Despite the loose ends, Russian Doll would work just fine as a stand-alone series. There’s enough to keep our imaginations ticking. Granted, watching Nadia and Alan turn a corner in their own lives is a satisfying ending.

However, co-creator and lead actress Lyonne recently revealed in an interview with The Independent that the concept was originally pitched as a three season arc.

“We definitely pitched it as this three-season idea and yet it’s so interesting to think about how that shapes and morphs in the time since making it,” Lyonne said.

So what could the next season (or two) of Russian Doll  look like? One possibility is that the series continues to follow the lives of Nadia and Alan in their separate universes with the hope that they might be able to find each other again, or that their two universes will somehow converge.

Photo Credit: Netflix

Alternatively, the show could start with a completely fresh cast who go through the same experiences that Nadia and Alan do. There’s no shortage of people with unresolved trauma out there and it would be interesting to see how different the circumstances can be. If the creators choose to go down this route, we may get to see more of Horse (he appears to be intrinsic to whatever is going on) and more light might be shed on the phenomena of the time loops.

Another possibility would be to see the time looping from the perspective of other characters who were in the first season. Maxine, for example, is a constant throughout — when everyone else disappears, Maxine is still dancing away in the apartment all by herself. Maybe the other people in Nadia and Alan’s lives also had odd experiences similar to the time loop and season 2 will dig deeper into those.

This seems like a good route into exploring the origins of the building that Maxine’s apartment is in — the old yeshiva building — which is discussed with a Rabbi in the first season.

Either way, co-creator and writer Headland has continued to be cryptic about whether Lyonne will be returning for the next season.

“She was always a presence, as we knew Lyonne would always be the beating heart and soul of this show. Whether she was being haunted or she was haunting the narrative, she would be there,” Headland shared.

So it’s anyone’s guess what will happen in season 2, but there is one guarantee: if it’s even half as good as season 1, it will be fantastic. There isn’t an official release date for Russian Doll‘s second season, but if the critical reception is anything to go by, it will hopefully be announced soon!