Modern Love Season 2 - What We Know So Far

In 2004, the New York Times started a column for their style section titled Modern Love (via NYT). The column published personal essays that explored love in all of its many complicated forms — from friendships to family ties to, of course, romances. In 2019, Amazon premiered a new anthology series, also titled "Modern Love," which was based on the column. Each episode of "Modern Love" — there were eight total in the first season — was adapted by show-runner John Carney ("Once," "Sing Street") and based off of one of the essays famously published by the New York Times.

With each episode standing on its own, the show provides a compelling look into not just one, but a slew of personal vignettes of individuals working through the often complicated navigation of various relationships. Plus, the series also boasted a stellar cast, with appearances from stars like Anne Hathaway, Dev Patel, Tina Fey, and Catherine Keener — to name just a few.

Amazon released all eight episodes at once, so viewers who enjoyed the first season have been without new "Modern Love" episodes since October of 2019 — and are probably more than eager for more love-related content. Here's what we know so far about a second season of "Modern Love."

Just less than a week after the first season premiered, Variety reported that Amazon had renewed the series for a second season. The head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, told Variety, "Since its debut just last week, the reaction to 'Modern Love' from viewers has been incredible ... We're so excited we'll be able to bring our global Prime Video customers more of the beautiful stories of romance, friendship, and family from 'Modern Love.'"

At the time of Variety's reporting, Season 2 was set to premiere in 2020. As we all know, COVID-19 resulted in the delays of countless film and television productions, "Modern Love" included (via TVSeason&Spoilers). Luckily, they were able to resume production late last year. And, in February of 2021, Vulture reported that production for the next season had officially wrapped. While there is no release date announced yet, we can hopefully expect to see the new episodes sometime this year. Perhaps Amazon will follow in the first season's footsteps and opt for another October release date, as well?

The cast of "Modern Love" Season 2 is reportedly just as star-studded as the first — if not more so. This past February, it was announced that four big names, including "Games of Thrones" star Kit Harrington and "Judas and the Black Messiah" breakout Dominique Fishback had joined the previously announced cast members (via The Hollywood Reporter). Along with Harrington and Fishback, the series added Anna Paquin of "True Blood" and Gbenga Akinnagbe of "All the Devil's Men."

The already confirmed cast members also include Lucy Boynton, Garrett Hedlund, and Minnie Driver. The long list only continues with Tom Burke, Zoe Chao, Maria Dizzia, Susan Blackwell, Grace Edwards, Kathryn Gallagher, Telci Huynh, Nikki M. James, Aparna Nancherla, Larry Owens, Zane Pais, Isaac Powell, Ben Rappaport, Milan Ray, Jack Reynor, Miranda Richardson, Marquis Rodriguez, James Scully, Zuzanna Szadkowski, Lulu Wilson, Don Wycherley, and Jeena Yi.

The lineup, which has the perfect balance of big names to lesser known stars, definitely makes it easy to get even more excited about the upcoming season.

As of now, there isn't any information about what kind of storylines "Modern Love" will explore with this next season. Carney and the other writers definitely don't have a lack of source material seeing as the Modern Love column has been published every week since 2004, adding up to hundreds and hundreds of personal essays ripe for the picking.

The first season included an array of stories having to do with love throughout New York City. In the episode titled "Take Me as I Am, Whoever I Am," a woman named Lexi (Anne Hathaway) struggles with how to disclose her bipolar disorder to potential dates. In another, titled "When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist," the founder of a dating app, Joshua (Dev Patel), and a journalist, Julie (Catherine Keener), bond over their lost loves while she interviews him for a profile.

Back when the announcement for Season 2 was made, show-runner John Carney released a statement, hinting at what was to come with the upcoming season. He said, "Being given a green light to proceed with 'Modern Love' is a great opportunity for us to continue to tell stories of love, while opening up the series into new cities and worlds ... Subsequent seasons can really branch out and dig deep into what it means to love in this complicated world." The detail about branching out to new cities aligns with a recent report by Cosmopolitan that episodes will be set in places such as Albany, New York and Dublin, Ireland.

Carney concluded his statement with an expression of enthusiasm, declaring that the team is "dizzy with possibilities moving forward."