TV & Movies
The Changeling Cliffhanger Sets Up A Potential Season 2
The TV adaptation ends midway through its source material, Victor LaValle’s novel.
Since its September premiere, Apple TV+’s The Changeling has taken viewers on a mysterious quest through New York, following a young family — Apollo, Emma, and baby Brian — pulled apart by a disturbing tragedy: Emma disappears without a trace after killing her son.
Or so it seems. Apple TV+ describes the series as a “fairytale for grown-ups,” so the reality of what happened to Brian is more outlandish than it initially appears. But do the eight episodes wrap up in a neat “happily ever after” following its Oct. 13 finale, or will The Changeling return for Season 2?
The show is based on Victor LaValle’s award-winning novel of the same name. And not to divulge too much, but the book does have a happy ending despite its premise — but that ending is far away from the show’s timeline. Currently, Apple TV+ has yet to renew the series for a second season.
The Show’s Ending, Explained
If you’ve watched the Season 1 finale (spoilers ahead), you know it ends with a cliffhanger. Emma arrives in Forest Park to find Brian. Apollo paddles away from North Brother Island to follow suit at Cal’s urging.
While it’s moving to see both parents united in pursuit of family, the story isn’t done.
As The Changeling director and executive producer Jonathan van Tulleken recently told The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s first season ends roughly midway through the novel’s plot. So there’s a lot of material left to pull from, and naturally, van Tulleken is hoping for a Season 2.
“I want people to continue the journey. The ending is deliberately designed to say: This wasn’t in anyone’s head,” van Tulleken said, adding that “the world is there to be expanded incredibly.”
The show teases as much, with a brief flash-forward showing Apollo facing a creature you might recognize from LaValle’s novel.
The Changeling Left Critics Intrigued
The show’s critical reception has trended positive, although as van Tulleken noted to THR, it’s had a somewhat polarizing effect on viewers. “When people don’t like it, they really don’t like it; when people love it, they really love it,” he said.
But even temperate fans seem eager for a second season. The Guardian’s three-star review, for example, describes the show as a “baffling smörgåsbord of delights” and hopes for a “more traditional” follow-up.
If you’ve read LaValle’s novel, you know that the future would still be pretty wild, but at least it would answer some unresolved questions from the show’s first season.
