The Boroughs. Alfred Molina as Sam in The Boroughs. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
Described as Stranger Things with senior citizens’, Netflix’s new sci-fi drama The Boroughs has proven an instant stand-out. Will it get renewed for Season 2? It feels more than likely, especially with the creators teasing their three-season plan. Here’s everything we know so far.
After ending Stranger Things, Matt and Ross Duffer are already pursuing new projects at Netflix under their Upside Down Pictures umbrella. Earlier this year, they saw the release of Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, a brilliant, creepy, and atmospheric horror drama. In their latest foray as executive producers, they take viewers inside The Boroughs, an idyllic, sun-drenched oasis in the heart of the New Mexico desert. There, we follow ex-engineer and widower Sam Cooper (Alfred Molina), a largely unwilling resident of the retirement community; all he wants to do is leave. However, he soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy within the walls of the Boroughs involving mysterious monsters and a sinister managerial underbelly (because like Stranger Things, the humans are always the real villains). Before long, he finds himself teaming up with other residents to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. Sam finds companionship and support in his fellow community members, most notably Judy (Alfre Woodard), Art (Clarke Peters), and Wally (Denis O’Hare).
Season 1 tells a complete story and covers an entire character arc for Sam Cooper, who begins the series as a lonely, grouchy new resident at the Boroughs, and ends it with newfound hope and, more importantly, new friends. By the end, he’s happy to remain in the Boroughs as a resident, no longer seeing it as a ‘gilded prison’. “If Sam’s arc is about going from not accepting that death is part of life to embracing it, then he starts in a very sad place, missing Lilly,” co-showrunner Will Matthews told Netflix TUDUM. “We thought to help complete that arc — to heal that wound and create a little closure — [was] to give him this magical moment.”
Picture Credit: Netflix
It ends on a happy note, but not without throwing a last-minute curveball. The final moment adds a twist, suggesting that the otherworldly, sci-fi threats inside of The Boroughs may have been dismissed a little too early. With his friends around for dinner, Sam accidentally cuts himself and heads to the bathroom to nurse his wound. Staring at himself in the mirror, something strange occurs: his reflection glitches like TV static. This scene was deliberately placed to fuel speculation about Season 2 and where the series will head next. “[Sam] glitching in the mirror is a hint at where we hope to go [next],” co-creator Jeffrey Addiss teased to Netflix. “We wanted to have some fun.”
This was not the first time we’ve seen glitching in the series: Sam sees glitches of his wife earlier in the season. The show uses it as a side-effect of the main supernatural powers, much like how Stranger Things utilized flickering light bulbs in a similar way. It’s born from the enigmatic Mother character. “Mother puts out a signal, a sort of SOS, and that message gets picked up by people who are sensitive to it,” Addiss explained. “Mother is transmitting a signal, and that’s why we played with the idea of old TVs and this idea of transmission. There’s something happening, something going through the air.”
Netflix has not renewed The Boroughs, but Season 2 is in Active Development
The Boroughs didn’t debut as a limited series; there’s a very clear intention to keep the story going, and it shows from the teaser in the final moments of Episode 8. However, Netflix hasn’t renewed for Season 2 yet, but it seems only a matter of time before the streamer announces a renewal.
One positive sign of Season 2 being in active development comes from the WGA directory, which lists Season 2 (2027/2028). This is not confirmation of a renewal, but suggests a new installment is in development. This isn’t uncommon with big-budget shows like this getting early scripts together so they can hit the ground running should an official renewal come.
What it will need now is a green light from Netflix, and for that, it needs to perform. We haven’t got any numbers just yet (the first batch will come on May 26th), but we do know the series has debuted at #5 globally in the daily top 10s, behind Berlin S2, Nemesis, The WONDERfools, and Sold Out On You. We’ll have lots of analysis to come as the numbers roll in.
The team behind The Boroughs have a ‘three-season plan’ and they know how it ends
The Boroughs. (L to R) Denis OÕHare as Wally, Alfre Woodard as Judy, Alfred Molina as Sam in The Boroughs. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2026
If one thing is for sure, The Boroughs creators Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews have concrete plans for where they want the series to go, and how they plan on reaching a conclusion. “We have a very specific three-season plan, and we think we know the last shot of the last scene of the last episode,” Addiss told IGN. “How we get there might change a little, but we have the answers to all the questions, and a plan of how and when to answer those. We wanted season one to feel emotionally complete, but leave some questions unanswered. We really wanted [you] to feel like you got a full story, in case that’s all we get. If it’s a success, we’d like to tell you a bit more about what’s going on. What is Mother? We know the answer to that. We want to tell you, so hopefully people watch so we get that chance.”
As for how the sci-fi aspect of the show will develop, Addiss sees the series breaking from the Duffer formula of having a different monster each season. “We don’t think of it as a monster-of-the-season show,” he revealed. “We do think of this as one large, complex story where crazy stuff continues to happen that’s surprising, but it is one story to us.”
Fans are already desperate for The Boroughs Season 2
Audiences are loving The Boroughs, and ratings are mostly positive. It currently holds a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 7.6/10 on IMDb. Of course, both those scores are liable to change heavily in the coming weeks, but initial high scores are always a good indication of popularity.
On social media, there’s a massive outpouring of support to the series. Fans are calling for Season 2:
I’m only 3 episodes in to the Boroughs but I need a season 2 PRONTO
— ️ Spencer Keaton Rose (@SpencerRose3) May 22, 2026
#theboroughs is honestly just stranger things for gen x and boomers, it’s a fun show. hope it get’s a 2nd season… pic.twitter.com/qLExmhNvK2
— . (@jamaicaklove) May 22, 2026
Love how it ended. But I hope we get S2. #TheBoroughs
— JS (@nicejanice19) May 22, 2026
Binged it on release day – loved it, want season 2 now @dufferbrothers_ @netflix #TheBoroughs pic.twitter.com/91q0SH1kCb
— Dale H (@DaleReadsBooks) May 21, 2026
The Boroughs Season 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Read our review here.
