Our favorite horny teens are about to fly the nest, but perhaps Sex Education season four won’t be the last we see of the town of Moordale. Sex Education‘s fourth and final season, which will premiere on Netflix on September 21, 2023, will see Otis (Asa Butterfield), Eric (Ncuti Gatwa), Maeve (Emma Mackey), and most of their friends forcibly leave Moordale Secondary School, and transfer to the progressive and high-tech Cavendish Sixth Form College.
A new school will bring new characters, dynamics, and a rival sex therapist for Otis to the forefront, but Sex Education creator Laurie Nunn has promised that she’s proud of where all these characters we’ve come to love will end up. Speaking with Netflix Tudum, Nunn said: “…it just started to feel very clear that the stories were coming to an end, the characters were being left in a place that I felt really good about it. I felt happy for them, and I felt like I’ve said everything that I want to say with these characters at this time.”
But the fact that this particular group of characters’ time on Netflix is coming to an end doesn’t mean we necessarily have to say goodbye to the idyllic town of Moordale and all its inhabitants forever. When asked if Sex Education season four would be the last time we get to visit Moordale, Nunn explained that she’d be taking some time off to think about other projects, but that there is always room for more. “…Moordale is a really rich world, and writing about teenagers is always a lot of fun. So, I think that there’s always potential for more to be explored in that world.”
So what could these hypothetical spin-offs be about? The most obvious choice would be to follow a brand-new group of students at Cavendish Sixth Form College, with someone carrying on Otis’ and his rival therapists O’s (Thaddea Graham) legacy. Perhaps one of Sex Education‘s characters has a younger sibling that could take center stage. Maybe it could be about the fight to re-open Moordale Secondary after it was forced to shut down due to a lack of funding and sold off to developers at the end of Sex Education season three.
It is, however, unlikely that we’ll see the show’s biggest breakout stars return to the world of Sex Education any time soon, if ever. Simone Ashley, who played Olivia, left the show for Bridgerton, and Patricia Allison, who played Ola, won’t be returning for season four either in order to pursue other opportunities. Ncuti Gatwa, who plays fan favorite Eric Effiong, will soon make his proper debut as the 15th Doctor on Doctor Who, and co-star Emma Mackey, who plays Maeve, has been seen in a string of Hollywood films recently (both of them also appeared in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie).
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gatwa said: “When you’re telling stories that haven’t been seen before, there’s always a battle as to how to tell them. It wasn’t always joyous. I feel like we’ve outgrown it and we’ve given everything we can to it.” Fair enough—Gatwa is now in his thirties. Sex Education first premiered four years ago, and a lot has changed in all the cast’s lives since then.
But who knows? Perhaps that gorgeous red house on the hill could even have an entirely new family living there sometime in the distant future.
(via Netflix Tudum, featured image: Netflix)
