Lunatics – Picture: Netflix
We’re soon coming up on the one-year anniversary of the release of the comedy sketch series from Chris Lilly called Lunatics. Will Lunatics be returning for a second season? Has it been canceled? Here’s the latest.
In case you missed it, Lunatics is a sketch series from the famed Aussie comedian Chris Lilley. The series sees him play six often outrageous characters. The first 10 episodes touched down on Netflix in April 2019 but all has gone quiet since.
Reviews, at least from critics were not kind to Chris Lilley or the series. In fact, the headline that still sticks out to me almost a year after the release is from The Guardian. Stuart Heritage’s headline tells you everything you need to know about his opinion on the matter: “Lunatics is nasty and grotesque. Chris Lilley’s career is shot”. Ouch.
Has Lunatics been renewed or canceled?
Official renewal status: Pending (last updated: 03/04/2020)
As of March 2020, the series has yet to get an official thumbs up from Netflix. Despite the reviews, lack of renewal, we’re still holding out hope for a new series.
The closest we’ve come to a renewal of the series (although it doesn’t explicitly cover Lunatics) is from a recent Ask Me Anything Reddit thread where a fan asked: “Hi Chris- I’m really excited about season 2 of Lunatics- anything you can tell us? New characters? More cameos?”.
The answer to this question actually seems to suggest Chris is referring to a series other than Lunatics. He answered: “Yeah same so excited for the next installment of something… Can’t say right now but it’ll be good”. This could be either teasing a new project, Lunatics season 2 or as some have suggested, the second season of Summer Heights High which originally aired on HBO.
With that said, a few other lines does suggest he enjoys working with Netflix because of the freedom they grant him.
The last we heard from Chris Lilley on the series is that the series broke the top 10 most popular releases in 2019 for Netflix Australia. It was the 5th most-watched title but the second most-watched series. The series also broke into the top 10 titles in the UK too.
Congratulations to Lunatics for being one of Netflix’s highest rating shows of 2019 in Australia. pic.twitter.com/pLtDC7MeeK
— Chris Lilley (@ChrisLilley) December 30, 2019
Our final note on this is that Chris Lilley hasn’t been attached to any projects since Lunatics.
Sadly, we’re not going to give an estimate as to when a second season of Lunatics is on the way. What we suspect, is that should we hear of a renewal, it’ll come with a released date but to be clear, nothing is confirmed.
For now, there’s plenty of additional content being uploaded to Chris Lilley’s YouTube including extended scenes that are must-watches for any fans of the series.
Perhaps the best thing to watch in the meantime is the blooper reel which has amassed over 200k views.
Do you want to see Lunatics return to Netflix for a second season? Do you think it’s likely at this point? Let us know in the comments.
