‘My Life With The Walter Boys’ Renewed For Season 2 At Netflix; Showrunner Melanie Halsall & Star Nikki Rodriguez Talk Expanding Series Beyond The Novel
Netflix has a new YA hit on its hands with My Life With The Walter Boys.
The series has been renewed for Season 2 after just over 10 days on the streamer. Scroll to the bottom of this story to see a video of the cast reacting to the renewal news.
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The rapid renewal comes as Season 1 has risen quickly to popularity. In its first full week on Netflix, the first season tallied more than 12M views, putting it at the top of the English-language TV charts. The season was off to a strong start after debuting on December 7, shooting to No. 2 on the streamer’s Top 10 list with 7.5M views in just a few days of availability.
“It’s been incredible. Phenomenal, actually. I think the audience response has just been so overwhelming and enthusiastic and positive. We couldn’t have hoped for better audience reaction really,” showrunner Melanie Halsall told Deadline.
Season 1 of My Life With The Walter Boys is based on the book of the same name by Ali Novak. Season 1 follows 15-year-old Manhattanite Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez) after losing her family in a tragic accident. Jackie leaves behind her privileged and proper life in New York and moves to rural Colorado to live with the family of her mother’s best friend. The Walters welcome her with open arms, but Jackie soon must confront her growing feelings for two very different Walter brothers.
The events of the book wrap up by the end of the season and, without giving too much away, the final episode departs from the ending of the book in a way that leaves the story ripe for a Season 2.
Halsall remained mum about ideas for Season 2, admitting to Deadline that she hasn’t sorted out all the details, including what’s in store for Jackie since she jetted off to New York at the end of Episode 10. “I mean, the story is set in Silver Falls,” she said, adding the she fully intends to head back for Season 2. “Beyond that, I genuinely don’t know.”
Rodriguez is also at a loss for where her character’s story should go in the forthcoming season, telling Deadline she “can’t even imagine where where Season 2 would start.”
“Jackie’s going through a lot and she has really big dreams and goals, and so I really hope for Jackie that she doesn’t get too off track and doesn’t get too distracted and just remember what she really wants,” she said. “Ultimately, no one’s gonna look out for you the way that you would. So I think… her choosing herself is really important for people to see, and I kind of applaud Jackie for it to be honest.”
Unlike Season 1, there is no blueprint for the forthcoming season, which Halsall said will give the writing team the opportunity to “spread our wings and fine little bit while still being true to Ali’s original story,” adding that she’d been thinking about the possibility of multiple seasons since before she pitched the show to Netflix.
“I was always thinking that could be a long-running, returning series. That’s one of the reasons I love the book so much…as well as that core love triangle that we saw, which is so rich and fantastic and wonderful, we’ve also got a town full and school full of fantastic ensemble characters that I think have incredibly rich storytelling opportunities.”
When asked which character she’s particularly excited about diving into for Season 2, Halsall insisted “genuinely every single one of them. I can’t wait to give them the best story that can possibly happen.”
However, Rodriguez has one idea for her, explaining that she’d like to see more emphasis on Danny Walter (Connor Stanhope), who will be returning from a summer studying at Juilliard. She said she is particularly excited about what appears to be a budding romance with Erin (Alisha Newton).
Season 2 poses a big undertaking for Halsall, who will have to imagine a story for these characters beyond the pages that Novak originally wrote. That work began in Season 1, as Halsall and the writing team gave much more life to the characters beyond the core love triangle and even added new characters to fill the 10-episode season with plenty of romance, conflict, and redemption.
Halsall took a big swing by choosing to end Season 1 differently than the book, which offers much more resolution for the love triangle between Jackie, Alex (Ashby Gentry) and Cole (Noah LaLonde). While she was never worried about how the changes would play with readers, and she had Novak’s blessing to do so, the response to the first season has certainly given her the confidence to pave a new story for everyone in Silver Falls.
“When you’re making a television series that you want to be returning, you have to make changes from a novel. I wanted to surprise the audience. I wanted to give the audience something a little bit different than than they were expecting from the book. I wanted to leave it open ended what what Jackie was going to do and what boy she was gonna end up with,” Halsall said. “I’ve often said that maybe Jackie won’t end up with a boy but she’ll end up on her own. Maybe that’s still the case. It was a deliberate decision to make that change, and I think it was organic to the story.”
Season 1 of My Life With The Walter Boys is currently streaming on Netflix.
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