‘13 Reasons Why’ Renewed For Season 3 But Already Faces Backlash

Netflix has decided to renew “13 Reasons Why” for the third season. However, some critics are unhappy with the streaming site’s decision.

Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, defended their choice to pick up the show.

“‘13 Reasons Why’ has been enormously popular and successful. It’s engaging content. It is controversial. But nobody has to watch it,” he told Deadline.

Prior to the renewal, one parenting group warned the streaming service for potentially having the blood of children on their hands if they continue releasing episodes of “13 Reasons Why.”

Tim Winter, PTC president, said in the statement, “Netflix has delivered a ticking time bomb to teens and children who watch ‘13 Reasons Why.’ The content and thematic elements of the second season are even worse than expected.”

However, Hastings did not directly address their criticism.

The second season of “13 Reasons Why” was released last month, and it centered on the aftermath of Hannah Baker’s (Katherine Langford) suicide. Other than her shocking death, Season 2 also introduced a school shooting storyline, wherein Tyler (Devin Druid) almost blew up his school after he was sexually assaulted.

Meanwhile, a teaser for the new season of “13 Reasons Why” has already been released. The 28-second clip opens with one of the characters opening the school locker. Once it is opened, the unknown male character opens it and grabs a brown bag. When he closes the locker door, the number “3” appears on the screen. This signifies the third season renewal of the series.

According to Forbes, production for Season 3 will kick off sometime this year. New episodes will be released by Netflix in 2019. The third season will have a total of 13 episodes, and Brian Yorkey will still serve as series creator and showrunner.

Yorkey, Joy Gorman, Mandy Teefey, Kristel Laiblin, Tom McCarthy, Steve Golin and Selena Gomez will all work as executive producers of “13 Reasons Why.”

The new season will be produced by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content for Netflix. All of the original characters, namely, Clay (Dylan Minnette), Jessica (Alisha Boe), Justin (Brandon Flynn), Tony (Christian Navarro), Bryce (Justin Prentice), Alex (Miles Heizer), Zach (Ross Butler), and more will return.