Although season 1 of the celebrated Hulu miniseries Black Cake is now complete, viewers are hoping to see more of the story in a potential season 2. Will that ever happen? We’re hoping the answer is yes!
Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel Black Cake was always destined for greatness. You may recall that Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films production company entered a bidding war to secure the television rights to Black Cake before the book was even published in 2022. That positive word-of-mouth resulted in major book club selections, including TODAY’s Read With Jenna book club and the Book of the Month club, providing the novel with a recipe for success. The first season of the Hulu television adaptation was equally critically acclaimed.
What’s the plot about?
Black Cake is about Eleanor Bennett (Chipo Chung), a mother who passes away and leaves behind two strange items for her two adult children, Benny Bennett (Adrienne Warren) and Byron Bennett (Ashley Thomas): the last black cake she ever made, and a thumb drive full of confessions. (FYI, black cake is a traditional Caribbean dessert made with rum that Wilkerson’s own mother used to make.)
As for that mysterious thumb drive? Well, it just contained a lifetime of Eleanor’s secrets and confessions, all of which challenge everything Benny and Byron ever thought they knew about their family’s past, present, and future. No biggie.
Other cast members include Mia Isaac as Coventina “Covey” Lyncook, Lashay Anderson as Bunny Pringle, Faith Alabi as Pearl Thomas, Glynn Turman as Charles Mitch, and others. Wilkerson says the point of her book centers on culture, food, and identity. The Hulu series, which was adapted by Marissa Jo Cerar, highlighted all of those themes, earning nominations for Outstanding Drama Series at both the 55th NAACP Image Awards and the 35th GLAAD Media Awards.
Will Black Cake return for a second season?
The 8-episode first season on Hulu covered all of the source material in Wilkerson’s book, but that seldom stops streamers from renewing shows based on books for future seasons. Just look at Liane Moriarty’s book adaptations Big Little Lies and Nine Perfect Strangers as examples. While no official announcement about a second season has been made to date, Cerar told The Washington Post via a YouTube livestream that she sees season 1 as merely a jumping-off point to tell Benny, Byron, and Mabel’s stories.
“Well, I just didn’t know how you would tell all of these stories in two to two and a half hours or three hours, depending on how long movies are … I wanted to tell every character story,” she said. “It is not just Covey’s story, it is not just Eleanor’s story, it is Benny’s story [….] These are all the people who are in Covey’s life and I always say that season 1 is act one of Benny, Byron, and Mabel’s stories, and Bunny’s too.”
Similarly, Mia Isaac told BET she’d be delighted to reprise her role in a potential season 2. “It would be great if there were a second season,” said the actress. “I haven’t heard anything yet, but that would be really cool to see what happens with the kids in the future and all that kind of stuff.”
It sounds as if everyone is on board with making a season 2 of Black Cake, so here’s hoping! In the meantime, you can watch all eight episodes of Black Cake streaming right now on Hulu.
(featured image: Hulu)
