Will The Good Lord Bird Season 2 Ever Happen?

Showtime has another bonafide hit on its hands with The Good Lord Bird. 

The miniseries is actually based off a 2013 book of the same name, written by James McBride. In both mediums, the story follows the perspective of Henry "Onion" Shackleford (Joshua Caleb Johnson), a slave living during the Bleeding Kansas era prior to the American Civil War. One day, he accidentally meets abolitionist John Brown (Ethan Hawke). The two join forces, and they embark on various missions culminating in the well-known 1859 raid on an Army depot located in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Throughout their journeys, they meet many important historical figures, including Harriet Tubman (Zainab Jah), Frederick Douglass (Daveed Diggs), and J.E.B. Stuart (Wyatt Russell). 

The show has become one of the most critically-acclaimed series in all of 2020, earning a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics have praised everything from the lead performances to the music to the choreography of the shootouts. With such acclaim being heaped on the series, it only makes sense to wonder whether we'll get a season 2 any time soon. 

Our advice right now? Don't hold your breath. 

The Good Lord Bird may be set in the 1850s, but it's incredibly relevant to the modern world. It deals with issues related to race and gender, making it particularly relevant in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests that were prominent in the summer of 2020. Seeing as how the show ends leading up to the Civil War, it's not outside the realm of possibility for it to pick up during this crucial moment in American history, while also tying into themes relevant to modern society. 

However, from everything we've seen, the show is set to end permanently with its seven-episode run. 

The Good Lord Bird has been heavily marketed as a "limited series" by Showtime, so the network has likely planned for The Good Lord Bird to end after a single season. Additionally, The Good Lord Bird is based off a book. It follows many of the same plot points as the novel, and since there's no novelized sequel, there's nothing for the show to pick up on. Of course, that didn't stop HBO from moving forward with a second season of Big Little Lies, picking up where the book and first season left off, but that should be considered an outlier.

In any case, there has been no word from Showtime regarding a second season, so fans of the series should assume it isn't happening, until news breaks otherwise. Fortunately, the last episode of the limited series aired on November 15, so you can now binge-watch The Good Lord Bird on Showtime, in its entirety.