Netflix period drama The Empress has been a smash hit for the streamer according to its own top 10 ranking, as well as receiving a fair amount of praise from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and Twitter, many of whom have been comparing it to Bridgerton and The Crown.
High praise, indeed.
Thankfully, there is still so much more of Sisi’s story to be told, with the first season signing off when she falls pregnant with her first child. But will it return for more?
Read on for everything we know so far about The Empress season 2.
Has The Empress been renewed for season 2?
Despite teasing plenty more to come, there has been no news about its future as of yet.
In the meantime, there’s always the show’s companion novel to keep fans occupied, in which author Gigi Griffis has adapted the original Katharina Eyssen scripts to focus more on the early life of Sisi.
Publishing editor Caoilnn Douglass said the following to Netflix’s TUDUM: “I really like the idea of meeting this very famous woman before she becomes empress and not following her into that era that you think you know. That’s another way that we build on the show and create a companion piece. It’s her before the hype. Who was she really, and what did her earlier days look like?”
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It also gives fans the opportunity to inhabit the heads of the characters they’ve been watching on-screen, he explained.
“When you watch the series, you’re inherently kind of in the third person. You’re not able to be in their heads. We were mirroring the series, the same things had to happen, but what we could do was kind of play around with their thought processes and get to those battles they were having internally.”
The Empress season 2 cast: Who will return?
If there is a follow-up, it’s highly likely that the leads will all reprise their roles, with Devrim Lingnau back as Elisabeth, Philip Froissant as Franz and Melika Foroutan as his mother, Sophia.
We’d also expect to see Sisi’s mother and older sister, played by Jordis Triebel and Elisa Schlott respectively.
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Of course, a whole wealth of new figures from that period of history could also feature, and we might see more of the soon-to-be Nicholas II of Russia, who wants to abolish serfdom, and no doubt still harbours offence at being shown up by the Empress on a hunting trip.
The Empress season 2 plot: What will it be about?
There’s the constant looming threat of war in Europe, the ever-shifting plans for industrialisation and the impending birth of Elisabeth’s first child. But as long-time Netflix subscribers know, the streamer can be fickle and cancel shows which fans see a lot of potential in.
Only time will tell if we’ll see any of that play out. Watch this space for updates.
The Empress is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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