‘The OA’ Creator and Star Brit Marling Reveals Why the Series Takes So Long to Film

The OA debuted on Netflix almost two years ago, but a second season is still in the works, co-creator and star Brit Marling confirmed on Instagram Thursday. She shared a long statement, explaining why it has taken so long to bring Part II to the small screen.

Marling shared a photo of herself holding a sign reading “Where is Part II of The OA?” In the caption, she added, “short answer: [co-creator and director Zal Batmanjlij] and I just finished soundmixing chapter 2 so it is coming! long AF answer: swipe [left] to deep dive.”

In that “deep dive,” Marling explained that The OA does not function in the same way as a traditional television series, since it is not an adaptation and each episode can be of different lengths and scope.

“As a result, at every step of the way nothing can be imitated, it has to be invented,” Marling wrote. “For example, our producer on Part I had to through out the ‘pattern budgets’ the industry normally works with because each chapter required completely different resources to achieve scripts of different lengths, casts and ambitions. Once she cracked one chapter’s budget she couldn’t apply that code to the next to save time. The same is true for editing – an editor may solve how best to cut chapter 3, but that learning curve doesn’t apply to chapter 5, which is a completely different genre of storytelling.”

Marling wrote that she and Batmanjlij have been thinking of The OA as “neither film nor TV, but as some new kind of storytelling that has only just become possible because of Internet-streaming technology” and Netflix has been interested in supporting them in this new form.

The actress apologized for her long-winded reply and said she still cannot say when The OA: Part II will be released.

“I can only promise you that we go to work every day in the post house and work as hard as we can to make something that feels worthy of all the time and talent our collaborators have poured into Part II and worthy of all your encouragement and enthusiasm for this story.”

In the end, she thanked fans for being patient and understanding.

Production on The OA: Part II began earlier this year. In July, Marling shared a photo of herself in the edit room and promised that the new season will take the show in a new direction. “It’s early days but I will say this — something wholly original is emerging and that feels terrifying, which to me is a good sign,” she wrote.

All eight episodes of The OA: Part I were released in December 2016. It was renewed back in February 2017, with Marling returning as Prairie. The first season also featured the late Walking Dead actor Scott Wilson, who died on Oct. 6.

In The OA, Marling plays Prairie, a young woman who returns after having gone missing for seven years. She now considers herself “The OA” and claims she can see, even though she was blind before she disappeared.

Photo credit: Netflix