Netflix13 Reasons Why has officially been given the green light for a third season on Netflix.
The news comes shortly after the the programme’s second series hit screens last month. The third season will, as with the last two series, contain 13 episodes.
Creator Brian Yorkey will continue to head the team as showrunner and will also executive produce, along with Selena Gomez, Joy Gorman, Tom McCarthy, Mandy Teefay, Kristel Laiblin and Steve Golin.
Production on the new series will start later this year and will be aired sometime in 2019, according to Buzzfeed.
News of the third series will not please everyone, however, as earlier this year 13 Reasons Why came under fire for a graphic male rape scene in the final episode of the second series, causing concerned parents to call for its cancellation.
According to Vulture, US pressure group Parents Television Council (PTC) are calling on Netflix to pull the show from their services due its ‘harmful content’.
13 Reasons Why is based on the 2007 best-selling novel by Jay Asher. Netflix’s adaptation follows the story of Clay (Dylan Minnette) who comes across 13 tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate and his secret crush, who took her own life.
NetflixThe show which addresses a lot of tough themes such as suicide, mental health and bullying has been both praised and vilified for tackling these issues in a high school setting, using young actors to face the problems regular high school students endure, usually in silence.
However, in the eyes of the PTC season two took things too far after one of the characters, Tyler, is subjected to a sexual assault by school bully Monty. The ordeal leaves Tyler distraught and crying in the toilets, an experience which convinces him to plan a school shooting as revenge.
Check out the season 2 trailer here:
In a statement Tim Winter, PTC’s president, said:
The content and thematic elements of the second season are even worse than we expected.
We would have liked to have 13 reasons for hope and redemption following the graphic suicide of the lead female teen character, but rather than providing a path forward, the season only provides cause for despondency.
NetflixThe show’s creator Brian Yorkey, responded in an statement to Vulture, saying:
We fully understand that that means some of the scenes in the show will be difficult to watch.
I think Netflix has helped provide viewers with lots of resources for understanding that this may not be the show for everybody, and also resources for people who do watch it and are troubled and need help.
But the fact is that, as intense as that scene is, and as strong as the reactions to it may be, it doesn’t even come close to the pain experienced by the people who actually go through these things.
The PTC have not yet responded to the news that 13 Reasons Why has been given a third series by Netflix.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.