'Anatomy of a Scandal': Why There Won't Be a Season 2

Netflix found a huge hit in its anthology thriller series Anatomy of a Scandal, so fans are understandably confused that the series is not getting picked up. However, the show was "canceled" – instead, it was always planned as a limited series. The six episodes of Anatomy of a Scandal were all that were ever planned by its creators.

Anatomy of a Scandal is a Netflix original series that premiered on April 15, 2022. It is a drama with elements of true crime, politics and mystery all mixed together in the story of a British family torn apart by a highly publicized scandal. The show is based on a novel of the same name written by Sarah Vaughan, and Vaughan never wrote a sequel. With the story relayed in its entirety already, there's no reason for a second season to be made.

Vaughan wrote Anatomy of a Scandal and published it in 2018, drawing on her own experience as a political journalist and a student at Oxford. It was her third novel, separate from the first two books and the two that have followed it since. Vaughan has not hinted at any plans to make a sequel, and fans of the genre aren't necessarily clamoring for one, either. The story is self-contained, and thrillers of this kind do not typically get serialized in the world of publishing.

TV is a different story. Many acclaimed thriller adaptations have been extended past their source material, with TV writers teasing out the story and following the characters onto their next adventure. However, this is not always popular, with fans sometimes complaining that it's easy to tell when the original story runs out and the show is running on fumes. One of the most infamous recent examples was at Netflix – 13 Reasons Why.

It would make sense that Netflix wants to avoid this pitfall when it comes to Anatomy of a Scandal, ending the show on a high note. It's also notable that the book and the show are both British. Short limited series are much more common in the U.K., and book adaptations are rarely extended there. Viewers would like be surprised if Anatomy of a Scandal broke that norm.

Fans who are disappointed to leave the Whitehouse family behind can always turn to Vaughan's book. It is available now in print, digital and audiobook format wherever books are sold. Otherwise, the series is streaming now on Netflix.