days ahead dangerous relations premiering on Starz, the show has already gotten a season extension. Per THR, the show has been officially renewed for season 2. This follows the series that originally picked up in 2019, and perhaps the network is pleased with what they’ve seen with the early reviews. A statement released by Kathryn Busby, Starz’s head of original programming, confirms the news.
“dangerous relations is addictive, provocative and beautifully rendered,” said Busby. “This prelude to the famous 18th-century novel highlights pre-revolution Paris at its most decadent. We are confident that by the end of Season 1, viewers will be craving more scheming and temptation.”
Executive Producer Colin Callendar added: “We are extremely grateful to Starz and Lionsgate for their continued support of the show. We are thrilled to share Harriet Warner’s brilliant vision for Season 2, where our world will grow and the relationships between our characters delve into exciting, dangerous new ways.”
Callender is an executive producer for Playground alongside Tony Krantz, Scott Huff and Christopher Hampton of Flame Ventures. The series stars Alice Englert, Nicholas Denton, Lesley Manville, Kosar Ali, Carice van Houten, Hilton Pelser, Fisayo Akinade and Michael McElhatten.
dangerous relations is based on the original novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. The official logline reads:
“This modern take on a classic story takes audiences through wonder and terror, beauty and degradation, seduction and deceit in pre-revolutionary Paris. Driven to rectify the mistakes of their past, the young couple’s survival depends on their skills of seduction and manipulation of not only the French nobility, but also each other… . It’s not love… it’s war.”
The Starz series puts a prequel twist on the story
The series may be based on an 18th-century novel, but showrunner Harriet Warner wanted to add something new to the story with this reinvention of dangerous relations. In an interview with EWWarner noted that there was a lot of potential to go the route of a prequel, as the story still leaves a lot to the imagination when it comes to the backgrounds of the characters.
“There is one particular letter in the book that really gives the feeling that there could have been a very different life before this very iconic character of the Marquise de Merteuil,” Warner said. “That made me think, ‘Wow, there’s something new to say here.’ There’s been so many adjustments, you want to have something new to say, and I thought, “I want to know how these two people got so amoral and corrupt and the toxicity of their relationship. I want to go back to the beginning. How did that start?'”
Adding more “danger” to the story, Warner added, “I brought it into danger because I think what we have, telling it from a slightly different social class, is the sense of what happens when there’s no safety net is. I wanted to make the schedules and the games [that] these two characters play when we meet them in the novel and the movie… I really wanted to invest those with huge stakes.”
dangerous relations premieres on Starz on November 6, 2022.