‘Sense8’ Team Anticipating a Season 2 as Netflix Original

By Doug Stone
for goweho.com

The rumor mill is already spinning over the future of “Sense8,” which debuted in June as the latest original series on Netflix, from the team of Lana and Andy Wachowski and TV veteran J. Michael Straczynski.

The high-concept, cyber-punk thriller has received mixed reviews from critics, but a positive response from fans for its stunning visuals and complex characters. Now the question is whether or not those favorite characters from Season 1 will return for a second outing.

The series is the creation of siblings Lana and Andy Wachowski, the masterminds behind “The Matrix” and “Cloud Atlas,” and Straczynski, creator of “Babylon 5,” and a writer for the “Amazing Spider-Man” comic book, among others. <br />
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The Wachowskis are fresh off the aesthetically astounding but mentally confounding “Jupiter Ascending,” and they’re bringing that same visual sharpness to the shots of “Sense8.” The show has been praised by critics for its handling of gender and identity with sharp character development, making up for the shortcomings of the Wachowskis’ impressive but wildly inconsistent foray into similar topics with “Cloud Atlas.”

This is the second original series on Netflix to prominently feature a transgender character. The hugely successful “Orange is the New Black” has made a star of actress Laverne Cox. And now “Sense8” features trans actress Jamie Clayton as protagonist Nomi Marks, a hacker and writer as well as one of the series’ eight main characters.

Co-creator Lana Wachowski, a producer-writer-director on the series, is also transgender, though Straczynski has noted in interviews that making the character of Nomi trans was his idea.

Seeing such positive portrayals on TV was unthinkable less than 20 years ago, and the prevalence of LGBT characters in popular culture is definitely progress. An outline of the LGBT community’s history in the States provides a sobering reminder that some discriminatory laws remained on the books until 2003. But a second season for “Sense8” has yet to be revealed.<br />
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Five years’ worth of plots have already been developed, Straczynski said in an interview.

“We know what all of the seasons are going to be,” the veteran TV showrunner said. “We’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll be spending much more time with Nomi, Riley, Lito and the rest of the crew very soon.”