In a surprise move, Disney+/Hulu has just renewed one of their more underrated shows for a second season!
Disney+ and Hulu fans have complained on the tendency to cancel some promising shows after just one season. That includes the well-received Renegade Nell and American Born Chinese. It's the metrics of the business, and compared to, say, Netflix, Disney+ isn't quite as bad at axing shows too soon.
So it's a surprise that, almost a solid year after its first season premiered, Disney+ and Hulu have announced a second season for The Artful Dodger. Given the first year was mostly overlooked and it's been so long since it was completed, a second season coming in 2025 is a bit unexpected.
For those who haven't seen it before, The Artful Dodger is an Australian-made series that serves as a sequel to Oliver Dickens' classic novel, Oliver Twist. The premise is that Jack Dawkins, aka the Dodger (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), escaped a trip to jail and remade himself as a promising surgeon in Australia with a side hustle in gambling.
Jack's new life is thrown off-kilter by the return of his old "mentor," master thief Fagin (David Thewlis). The first season had Jack try to balance his past and current lives while Fagin tried a big scam of his own. The first season ended with Jack saving the life of love Lady Belle (Maia Mitchell) but was arrested. In a twist, it looked like Jack might be freed only to be in the service of Fagin.
The series dropped all its episodes in 2023 but mostly flew under the radar. This is why the announcement of Season 2 is a bit surprising, with SVP of The Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand Kylie Watson-Wheeler promising a lot of fun.
“We’re thrilled to give our global audiences what they’ve been asking for, with a second season of The Artful Dodger set to start filming in 2025," said Walt Disney Company Australia and New Zealand Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Kylie Watson-Wheeler, in a statement.
"The return of our Australian-born Disney+ Original scripted drama, complete with all-star cast and a brilliant crew, is a testament to the series’ high calibre of production and its local and international audience success. We’re delighted this high-stakes romantic drama of heists, comedy, and beautifully complicated life and love, will thrill and entertain again.”
It's expected that Brodie-Sangster, Thewlis, and Mitchell will all return along with most of the supporting cast. Series co-creator James McNamara will lead the writing team, which will include Kate Mulvany, Dan Knight, and Miranda Tapsel. There's the likelihood of some new characters coming in with Season 2 likely expanding on the storyline with Jack trying to rebuild his life.
The show was one of Disney's better surprise successes, with some great casting and a well-told storyline. It got better as it went with an excellent critical response of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes with an audience score of 96%. It appears to have connected with international audiences better than some other Disney+ shows and led to the need for a second season. Filming is expected to begin early in 2025, with all eight episodes possibly dropping by the end of the year.
So if you haven't caught this underrated caper comedy before, it's a good time to catch up on a surprise success that's ready to keep putting new "Twists" on a classic storyline.
The Artful Dodger Season 1 streaming on Disney+/Hulu.