‘The Chair’ Season 2 — Will Sandra Oh Return as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim?
Is The Chair Season 2 happening? The TV show’s been streaming since Aug. 20, 2021, but what sort of future does the Netflix original series have, if any? Will Grey’s Anatomy alum, Sandra Oh, reprise her role as Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim as she continues her career at the fictional Pembroke University?
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from The Chair Season 1 Episode 6: “The Chair”]
‘The Chair’ Season 1 wrapped up the story but also left room for the possibility of ‘The Chair’ Season 2
Created by Amanda Peet and Annie Julia Wyman, The Chair follows Oh’s Ji-Yoon as she becomes the first woman to head up the English department at a prestigious New England university. There are challenges from the get-go including shrinking class sizes, office politics, and campus scandal.
Her friend, colleague, and love interest, Professor Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), does a Nazi salute in class and immediately gets taken down on social media. There’s a disastrous town hall meeting that only makes the situation worse and, later, a disciplinary-turned-termination hearing.
At the end of six, 30-minute episodes Ji-Yoon is no longer the chair of the department. Faculty members vote on her removal before she nominates Professor Joan Hambling (Holland Taylor) for the job. Spoiler, she gets it.
As for Bill, his relationship with Ji-Yoon survived the Nazi salute scandal. His teaching job, on the other hand, is in jeopardy. Bill turned down the university’s settlement offer and is now engaged in a legal battle to get his job back.
Netflix has yet to make an announcement about ‘The Chair’ Season 2
Seeing as The Chair hasn’t even been streaming for two weeks at the time of writing it’s no surprise Netflix hasn’t moved forward with the series. It’s typical of the streamer to wait a month or two before making such an announcement so The Chair will have to wait.
Although The Chair’s future looks promising. Not only did season 1 leave room for more but by in large reviews have been positive. Plus, The Chair made it in Netflix’s Top 10 list after it premiered. It’s also important to note that The Chair isn’t listed as a miniseries on Netflix’s website. Does that mean there’s more to the story? Perhaps.
Sandra Oh’s currently filming the final season of ‘Killing Eve’
All of the aforementioned factors will undoubtedly play a role in The Chair’s future but the actors’ availability is another big part of it. The Chair isn’t really The Chair without Oh, Taylor, Duplass, or Nana Mensah (Yaz McKay) and the rest.
Currently, Oh’s filming Killing Eve Season 4. So that means if The Chair were to get renewed, season 2 would have to be filmed around Killing Eve and any other projects Oh has in the works. That could make getting new episodes of the series filmed that much harder. Plus, there are the other actors’ schedules to consider which could also be a determining factor in whether or not season 2 happens.
For now, fans of The Chair can watch the series (again and again) on Netflix.