While fans of the darkly comic series The End of the F***ing World could scarcely believe their luck when a second season was announced, it turns out that luck may have run out…


In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, series creator Charlie Covell has revealed that the season two finale will mark the end of the Channel 4 show.

Asked about whether she could be tempted to pen a third season script, Covell said: “I think, for me, that’s it now. Yeah, that’s done. I think to try and eke more out would be wrong, I like where we’ve left it.”

Season one, which aired on Channel 4 back in October 2017, ended on a dramatic twist, leaving it ambiguous as to whether or not teenager James (played by Alex Lawther) was shot dead on a beach. The ending (which remained largely faithful to the graphic novel the show is based on) was hailed as a masterpiece by critics, while some even suggested that a second outing might ruin the first.

Given season one’s reception, has Covell been feeling the pressure ahead of season two? “Oh my God, yeah,” she admits. “Absolutely. Totally, I think there’s a big part of you that’s worried about what people think – but I worry and then I think, ‘My God, the fact that I’m worried about fans’ reaction to a show is a very nice problem to have… ‘

“There’s pressure, but there’s pressure because people like something that we all did together.”

Covell, who adds that she hopes viewers “get to the end of this season” before they pass judgement on the new episodes, says that she always hoped to be given the green-light for a second season — but that viewers should bear in mind that “you can’t write for what people want”.

“Put it this way, if for some reason we hadn’t been allowed to do season two, I would have been really gutted. Which I think shows that it was the right thing to do – for me, anyway. And I think I like where we end it [in season two], and yeah, it feels right for the story.

“But you never know, and you obviously you can’t write for what people want,” she adds. “I think you have to work out what’s right for the characters and the story— I sound like such a d*** saying that but I think you can’t, you’re not doing fan fiction.”


The End of the F***ing World season two will air on Channel 4 in the UK from Monday 4th to Thursday 7th November, with two new episodes double-billed every night across the week from 10pm. In the US, season two will be available on Netflix from Tuesday 5th November.