Pop Culture

Netflix Renews 'Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal' for a Depressing Second Season

The former South Carolina attorney was found guilty of murdering his wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul in their home.

Image via / Getty.Tracy Glantz/The State/Tribune News Service

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal will return for a second season on Netflix later this year, as confirmed by Vanity Fair.

The three-part docuseries investigates attorney Alex Murdaugh and the murder of his wife Maggie and their 22-year-old son Paul in their South Carolina home in June 2021. Murdaugh was found guilty of murder around the time that the series reached the height of its popularity on the streamer.

Julia Willoughby Nason and Michael Gasparro, the duo behind Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal, explain to Vanity Fair why they always believed that the series needed three more episodes to tell the entire story. "We always envisioned this as six episodes, and it was really just about getting Netflix on board," Gasparro said. "They saw that there were still stories to be told,”

After awaiting the conclusion of the trial, Nason and Gasparro can speak with key witnesses, such as former Murdaugh family housekeeper Blanca Turrubiate-Simpson and caregiver Shelly Smith. "We didn’t want to be doing any kind of recap," Nason said. "We really wanted to live first-person with the people who experienced this."

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The announcement of a second season comes on the same day as Murdaugh's only living son Buster's appearance on Fox Nation where he called his father's trial into question.

"I do not believe it was fair," Murdaugh said. "I was there for six weeks studying it, and I think it was a tilted table from the beginning. And I think, unfortunately, a lot of the jurors felt that way prior to when they had to deliberate. It was predetermined in their minds, prior to when they ever heard any shred of evidence that was given in that room."

Nason and Gasparro teased the possibility of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal extending beyond two seasons. With lingering questions surrounding the nearly 100 pending charges related to defrauding clients out of millions, the filmmakers proposed that subject could be explored in a "third season or something like that," with Gasparro adding, "I think this will be unfolding for the next decade."

Season 2 of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal premieres on Sept. 20.

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