Sweet Tooth season 2: everything we know so far

Below, we'll go over everything we know about a potential Sweet Tooth season 2 so far – that means we'll be discussing key plot points from season 1, so make sure you've seen it before you read further.

With the continued success of mega-franchises like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s easy to forget how much joy can come from watching something unexpected and new. Like Stranger Things five years ago, Netflix’s adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s post-apocalyptic Vertigo comic book exploded out of nowhere to become a massive hit for the streaming platform – and now Sweet Tooth season 2 is one of the most hotly anticipated TV series on the planet.

Netflix has now officially confirmed the show is coming back for a second season, as of July 29, 2021:

Sweet Tooth is officially coming back for Season 2!! pic.twitter.com/iVQ7QenxoFJuly 29, 2021

Now we know we're returning to a world still reeling from the “Great Crumble” – the fall of civilization, caused by a global pandemic known simply as “the Sick” – Sweet Tooth season 2 promises to continue the story of Gus (Christian Convery), a young boy with the antlers and ears of a deer. He’s one of a new breed of human/animal Hybrids that may (or may not) be connected to the fatal virus.

So as we wait with bated breath for the return of a show that’s managed to seamlessly blend bleakness and whimsy, sadistic militia men and cute animal kids, we’ve assembled this guide to everything you need to know about Sweet Tooth season 2. We discuss possible release dates, potential storylines, and who’s likely to be in the cast. It therefore goes without saying that there’s massive spoilers ahead – so tread carefully as you take your first steps into this strange new world…

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Sweet Tooth season 2 release date: 2022?

Gus and Tommy Jepperd in Sweet Tooth — Gus and Tommy ‘Big Man’ Jepperd hit the trails in Sweet Tooth. (Image credit: Netflix)

Netflix has now confirmed Sweet Tooth season 2 is in the works, but we don't know what the release date yet.

This renewal isn't a massive surprise. Not only did Sweet Tooth shoot straight to the top of the Netflix charts, the streamer has now confirmed (via Deadline) that the show has been watched by 60 million member households since it launched – making it Netflix’s sixth most-watched English language original series. (It's ahead of Emily in Paris and just behind The Queen's Gambit. Number one in the rankings is Bridgerton, with a whopping 82 million views.)

We’d expect the Sweet Tooth season 2 release date to be some time in late-2022 or early-2023. Netflix traditionally leaves around 18 months between seasons of its shows, so this seems a reasonable prediction.

We wouldn’t expect Covid-19 to add additional delays, seeing as the whole of season 1 – bar the pilot episode shot in 2019 – was filmed during the pandemic.

Tommy Jepperd in Sweet Tooth — Former Last Man Tommy Jepperd chose a new path in the first season of Sweet Tooth. (Image credit: Netflix)

Sweet Tooth season 2 cast: who’ll be heading back to the Great Crumble?

Bear in Sweet Tooth — Bear (aka Rebecca Walker) left her Animal Army behind in Sweet Tooth’s first season. (Image credit: Netflix)

We expect the Sweet Tooth season 2 cast to look like this:

Nonso Anozie as Tommy Jepperd/Big Man
Christian Convery as Gus/Sweet Tooth
Adeel Akhtar as Dr Aditya Singh
Aliza Vellani as Rani Singh
Stefania LaVie Owen as Bear/Rebecca Walker
Dania Ramirez as Aimee Eden
Neil Sandilands as General Douglas Abbot (aka the General)
Naledi Murray as Wendy
Will Forte as Pubba
Amy Seimetz as Birdie
James Brolin as the Narrator

The season 1 finale did little to suggest there’ll be major changes in the Sweet Tooth cast second time out. In fact, with no major character departures or deaths, we’d be surprised if anyone we’ve come to know over the show’s first eight-episode run failed to return.

So we’d expect the key figures in the Sweet Tooth season 2 cast to remain Christian Convery as Gus (the eponymous Sweet Tooth), and Nonso Anozie as his ex-footballer guardian Tommy Jepperd (known as ‘Big Man’).

We should also see more from Adeel Akhtar as Aditya Singh, the doctor desperately trying to save his wife, Rani (Aliza Vellani), from the Sick; Stefania LaVie Owen as former Animal Army commander Bear; and Dania Ramirez as Aimee Eden, protector of Wendy (Naledi Murray) and other Hybrids at the so-called Preserve. And it seems likely that Neil Sandilands will continue to terrorize Hybrids and humans alike, as the General, authoritarian leader of the Last Men.

We’d also be surprised if Will Forte doesn’t return to the Sweet Tooth season 2 cast (in flashback) as Gus’s late “Pubba”, while the season 1 finale strongly hinted that Amy Seimetz will have a big part to play as Gus’s ‘mother’ – or, more accurately, creator – Birdie.

Sweet Tooth wouldn’t be Sweet Tooth without that avuncular voiceover from narrator James Brolin.

And while it's a little bit early to be talking about newcomers to the Sweet Tooth season 2 cast, that hasn't stopped some speculation about who the show's most famous producer, Robert Downey Jr, could play if he ever decides to step in front of the camera.

“I think if our trio in the film became kind of a foursome and he just joined our band along the way and kind of helped us, and maybe helped us along the way in some way...” Anozie told ComicBook.com when asked who Downey could play. “I think a character that maybe didn't appear in the comic book, that he could actually come along and play. I actually think he would have made an interesting General Abbot as well, but I feel like Neil Sandilands has done such a great job in that. But if he was to come on, I think he'd have to join our gang, for sure.”

Sweet Tooth season 2 trailer: is there one?

Aimee and Wendy in Sweet Tooth — Aimee protects her daughter, Wendy, from the Last Men. (Image credit: Netflix)

Seeing as we don’t yet know if the show is coming back, it’s a little premature to be talking about a Sweet Tooth season 2 trailer. But assuming Gus and Big Man’s adventures through the Great Crumble continue, we’d expect to see something around a month before the second season debuts.

Sweet Tooth season 2 plot: what can we expect from the story?

The General in Sweet Tooth — The General will probably continue to be a thorn in everybody's side in Sweet Tooth season 2. (Image credit: Netflix)

While the show is based on Jeff Lemire’s comic book series, the source material might not offer that many clues about what to expect from the Sweet Tooth season 2 plot. Lemire’s story is much darker and more violent than the more family-oriented TV series, which makes some big changes from the page.

“The ambition was to create it for a family audience,” producer Susan Downey told Variety. “We want the whole family to be able to watch together. We talked to Jeff Lemire about how Gus is our true north and how his journey and his relationship to Jep and this interesting cast of characters and challenges they meet along the way are what’s important. That’s when we brought [co-showrunner/director] Jim Mickle on and we talked about creating this storybook or fairytale dystopia — this idea that if there was a drastic reduction in population, nature would take over again and it would be green and lush. We all felt confident, and Jeff gave us the blessing that we were keeping what was important to the storytelling and putting it in a more palatable environment.”

Beyond the shift in tone – “You can do different things with comics and with drawings that, if you were to do on screen, it would be beyond shocking,” Lemire pointed out to the Express – changes range from the minor (Jepperd was an ice hockey player in the comic, rather than a football star) to the fundamental (the characters of Bear and Aimee didn’t exist before the TV show). Other differences in Lemire’s comic include Jepperd handing Gus over to the Last Men, and the Animal Army being a group of adult fanatics, rather than the teen freedom fighters seen on TV.

But with the closing episode of season 1 leaving all of its ongoing storylines unresolved, Sweet Tooth was clearly never created as a one-off. “We definitely broke season 1 with the hope of future seasons,” co-showrunner Beth Schwartz told RadioTimes.com.

We expect the Sweet Tooth season 2 plot to pick up exactly where its predecessor left off, especially as the story is starting to bring its key players together, with Gus meeting the other Hybrid children, Tommy Jepperd being nursed to health by Aimee Eden, Dr Aditya Singh being forced to work for the General, and Bear making contact with Gus’s creator, Birdie, at an Antarctic research station.

It also seems unlikely that Covid-19 will alter any plans about the portrayal of the Sweet Tooth’s fictional, pinky-twitching pandemic – after all, season 1 was filmed when much of the world was living under lockdown. In fact, Schwartz says real-life has been an inspiration on the show in some ways.

“In a way, [the pandemic] helped us…” she admitted to RadioTimes.com. “We didn’t have to go too deep into explaining to our audience, ‘This is the pandemic. This is what happened.’ We could do it with simple nods, like the hand sanitizer, or the ‘6-feet apart’ sign that everyone kind of understood.”

Gus in a cage in Sweet Tooth — Gus found himself locked in a cage Sweet Tooth's season 1 finale. (Image credit: Netflix)

What questions does Sweet Tooth season 2 need to answer?

Birdie in Sweet Tooth — Burning question: what is Birdie doing in Alaska? (Image credit: Netflix)

It would almost be cruel if we don’t get to see a Sweet Tooth season 2, because there are so many questions the show needs to answer.

Most importantly, we need to find out why Birdie created human/deer Hybrid Gus (short for Genetic Unit Series 1), if/how his existence led to the birth of all of the other Hybrids, and if they’re connected to the Sick that has killed millions of people around the world.

With a cure for the disease also likely to be a key storyline, we need to find out how close Dr Gladys Bell got to finding a cure – and how far Dr Aditya Singh is prepared to go to save his infected wife, Rani. Will he sacrifice Hybrid lives, or will his meeting with Gus change his outlook on the endeavor – even if it means attracting the wrath of the General?

Other questions on the need-to-know list include the reasons for Birdie’s trip to Alaska (is she working on a cure for the Sick of her own?), why those hallucinogenic purple flowers appear where people are infected, and whether Bear/Rebecca will be reunited with her Hybrid sister, Wendy.

We’re also expecting flashbacks to show us more about Gus’s early days, and to fill in the gaps between the birth of Jepperd’s Hybrid child and his first encounter with Gus – presumably explaining his decisions to join, and subsequently leave, the Last Men.

“I spoke to Jim Mickle, the director, about the character arc and where Tommy’s going to go in relation to some of [the flashbacks],” star Nonso Anozie teased in an interview with the Express. “Some of it is going to be directly from the comic and some of it is going to be stuff that suits our audiences and suits the characters of the Sweet Tooth retelling.”

And who knows, maybe Big Man will even get to try out the “pass the ball” game Gus used to play with his Pubba…