Today, on April 30, 2018, Netflix released the premiere date for the second season of "13 Reasons Why." The date is not as far away as we originally thought - it is slated to come to Netflix May 18, 2018.

The last news heard of the next installment of the series was last July when the casting details were announced, although not much else was revealed by executive producer Selena Gomez on Twitter last year. While Gomez has not spoken about the new release yet, the "13 Reasons Why" official Twitter also posted the news earlier today.

What we know so far

According to Variety's report on the new season, "Season 2 picks up in the aftermath of Hannah's death, as the other characters start their journeys toward healing and recovery." However, the last season left an indication by Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford)herself that "the tapes were only the beginning." This leads the audience to believe that there are yet more gruesome events to uncover that contributed to Hannah taking her own life. We should also be expecting to follow Hannah's parents'(Kate Walsh, Brian d'Arcy James) journey as they file a lawsuit against Hannah's school, and they prepare to listen to their daughter's tapes themselves.

Dylan Minnette, who plays the show's Clay Jensen, told Yahoo back in January, "There’s a time jump. Season 2 is a couple months after Season 1, and there’s a lot that’s happened to Clay in between." We get to see what Clay is trying to do to move on from the events of the previous season, although this is unlikely, due to his closeness with Hannah before her death.

This addition to the series will have 13 episodes, each running for an hour long.

The show's controversial history

Last year, the show broke Netflix's record for the most tweets tweeted within the show's first week of streaming, according to statistics released by research firm Fizziology. Not all of the tweets were positive, however, as the show received some criticism on misrepresentation of the protagonist and of suicide in general as well as overuse of graphic imagery, which was argued could trigger viewers with a history of anxiety and depression, or trauma related to the show's content.

Selena Gomez answered questions about the decision to depict graphic imagery in the show and also communicated that the series was created to bring awareness and exposure to mental illness, through adapting the "13 Reasons Why" book into a Netflix series, according to an interview she did with The Hollywood Reporter last April. The "13 Reasons Why" official website also lists multiple resources for mental illness in a variety of languages, which does at least speak to the show's good intentions.

Regardless of the mixed opinions surrounding "13 Reasons Why" many of us will be keen to tune in when the next season is released this May.

If you or a friend is in need of help, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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