After nearly three years, The OA – one of the strangest shows of 2016 – is back on Netflix.


The second season of the sci-fi series – which is co-written by its lead actor, Brit Marling – was announced by Netflix way back in February 2017, but a long period of silence followed. This is in line with the first season, which received zero promotion before dropping out of the blue on the streaming service in December 2016.

Find out everything we know about The OA season 2 below.

When is The OA Part 2 released on Netflix?

The OA season two was released on Friday 22nd March 2019.

Jason Isaacs had earlier hinted RadioTimes.com at the BAFTA Film Awards 2019 Red Carpet that “it won’t be too long a wait” for the new episodes, adding that the new season is “exquisite and unparalleled”.

And finally, it's 2 yrs today since the #TheOA appeared on @netflix. It's intrigued, bewildered and electrified lovers of mystery, sci-fi, spirituality, story-telling and life all over the world, so to the many who ask: yes, we'll be back soon! #EnoughAboutMe@britmarling @z_al — Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) December 16, 2018

Late last year, Marling took to Instagram to assure fans that the series was in the can, and on the way soon. She also gave an explanation for the long delay, which essentially boils down to her having to do two jobs on the series, and it being a lot of work.

“Because I’m both the lead actor and a lead writer we can’t leap-frog the production,” she wrote. “We have to write all eight chapters up front before we can begin shooting the first chapter,” she wrote, before adding “Some people thought of Part I ofThe OA as a long film. If you look at it from that perspective [co-creator] Zal [Batmanglij] and I write and create an eight-hour film every two years. That’s pretty fast considering most two-hour films take at least two years to make!”

Is there a trailer?

Yes, Netflix released the first trailer for The OA season two on 27th February, the same time it confirmed the release date. Watch below.

Who is in the cast?

We know that Marling, who leads the cast as Prairie, a formerly blind woman who went missing for seven years and mysteriously re-appeared, having regained her sight, will return.

Plus, Jason Isaacs, who plays an experimental scientist with a dark secret, shared on Twitter that he had wrapped filming for season two – so he’s back, too.

That a wrap for me on #TheOA2. I left my part in San Francisco. #JustYouWait pic.twitter.com/GRrXzw8TUi — Jason Isaacs (@jasonsfolly) May 1, 2018

Netflix has also confirmed that Riz Ahmed is returning for a guest starring role, along with Patrick Gibson and Emory Cohen.

The big new addition to the cast is Kingsley Ben-Adir, best known to UK audiences for his role as Dr Marcus Summer in Vera. Judging by the trailer above, he’s set to have a key role in the new season.

What is going to happen?

The first season of the audience confounded and intrigued viewers in equal measure with its meandering storyline.

“What you think it’s about is a woman [Brit Marling] who turns up after having been abducted for seven years,” Jason Isaacs told RadioTimes.com back in 2016. “She was blind when she left and now she’s got her sight back.”

The bulk of the episodes were framed through Marling’s character, Prairie, as she told the story of her seven-year disappearance to a group of outcast teens. However, at the halfway point its sprawling plotlines boiled down to a singular subject matter: Near Death Experiences – a fascinating topic that delves into the boundaries of physics and philosophy.

The Netflix synopsis for season two sounds like it’s going to go even deeper into this multiple dimension-spanning story.

Check out the synopsis below.

The “mind-bending” story returns with The OA Part II, which follows OA as she navigates a new dimension, one in which she had a completely different life as a Russian heiress, and one in which she once again finds herself as Hap’s captive.

Part II introduces Karim Washington, a private detective tasked with finding a missing teen, Michelle Vu. His path crosses with OA, as they try to solve the mystery of Michelle’s whereabouts and a house on Nob Hill connected to the disappearance of several teenagers. Meanwhile, back in the first dimension, BBA, Angie and the boys find themselves on a journey to understand the truth behind OA’s story and the incredible realities she described.


If Marling and her co-writer Zal Batmanglij have their way, there’ll be at least five seasons of the show, so get strapped in…