Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself – Picture: Netflix
Coming out of Netflix UK is Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, adapting the Sally Green book, and with all eight episodes now streaming, can we expect a season 2? Here’s what we know so far.
The book was adapted for Netflix by Joe Barton, who has previously made iBoy and Giri/Haji for Netflix and is currently working on Our Man from Jersey.
The show has also received very good reviews across the board from critics and audiences alike. Over on RottenTomatoes, the show has a 92% from critics and a 91% from audiences. IMDb is similarly favorable with a 7.6/10 rating.
Has Netflix Renewed Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself for a season 2?
Official Renewal Status: Not yet renewed
Our Renewal Prediction: 50/50
A few weeks after its release, Netflix has yet to decide whether or not to renew the show for a second season, although, by our estimate, it’s a flip of a coin as to whether it’ll happen.
Given the show’s early performance, we would’ve been predicting a likely cancelation, but given that the title comes out of Netflix UK, the barrier to renewal could be lower. Either way, completing the show is the best way to ensure renewal.
In an interview with RadioTimes, the cast said there’s “more to explore” with a second season. Jay Lycurgo told them:
“My point with a season 2 is that we’re in a really great place in a world where we’ve only looked at a small chunk of it. There’s so much more to explore.”
We should note that some eagle-eyed viewers spotted that Netflix changed the show’s name and assets following its release. When it launched, the show was titled The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, but it has now had Half Bad added to the front of the title.
When the show was in production it simply went by the name of Half Bad and was later renamed so this is, in fact, the third name change for the series.
This is rare for Netflix, but putting our conspiracy theory hat on for a second, we have three theories as to why Netflix would do this:
- They wanted the title to reflect the title of the book the show is based on more in the hopes that there’s some name recognition
- The title is underperforming and making people search “Half Bad” over “The Bastard” is much easier and sanitizes the name a little.
- They plan for the series to continue but with a different subtitle per season (after all, the main book series is called Half Bad).
How well is Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself performing on Netflix?
The show featured in Netflix’s global top 10 charts for two weeks picking up 44.72M hours watched before dropping out in week three.
| Week Period | Hours Viewed(M) | Rank | Week in Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 23rd, 2022 to October 30th, 2022 | 13,830,000 | 7 | 1 |
| October 30th, 2022 to November 6th, 2022 | 30,890,000 (+123%) | 7 | 2 |
Although it didn’t feature in week 3, we do know that it scored less than 18.17M views meaning it fell nearly 60%. We’ve noted previously that shows that suffer a 50% drop from weeks 2 to 3 often spells disaster.
The Bastard Son and Devil Himself vs. Heartstopper and The Midnight Club
Looking at raw top 10s provided by FlixPatrol, we can see exactly where the show is performing best and it looks like countries like India, Brazil, and Germany are where the title is finding the most traction.
Their data suggests the show peaked early on its run (around 4 days), and nearly 20 days on, it has nearly disappeared from the top 10s altogether.
In the UK, the show’s home country, the title only featured in the top 10s for 13 days before dropping out.
Popularity heat map for The Bastard Son & the Devil Himself
What to expect from Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself season 2 on Netflix
As a recap, here’s what happened in the final episode:
“Soul goes on a rampage at Wolfhagen, eager to finally hunt down Marcus. Nathan, Annalise and Gabriel race to stop him before it’s too late.”
Naturally, there’s a lot of source material to cover but on the whole, the show has been going in mostly a different direction from the books.
That’s something that Joe Barton has confirmed himself, referring to the series as more of a spiritual adaptation.
Three books were produced in total, with a companion story also available.
With that said, here’s a rundown of what happened in the second book, Half Wild, and by the sounds of it, it’s very much the same position our Nathan is in:
“Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he’s on the run–but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.”
As and when we get it, we’ll keep you up-to-date on all things season 2 of Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself. Let us know in the comments if you want to see a second season on Netflix.