It’s a good time to be a murder mystery lover. Only Murders in the Building is now five seasons in, another Knives Out movie is in the works, and if you’re counting The White Lotus as part of the genre, there’s that, too. Netflix has added another series into the mix with The Residence, a comedic caper produced by Shondaland that revolves around a murder in the White House.
Starring Emmy winner Uzo Aduba as lead detective Cordelia Cupp, who is renowned for solving unsolvable mysteries, the sharp and quick-witted series is already a crowd-pleaser. But with only eight episodes in the first season, which began streaming on March 20, another mystery arises: Will the show continue for a second season? Let’s gather the clues.
Was The Residence renewed for season 2?
Unfortunately not. On July 2, Variety announced that The Residence had been canceled after one season.
And show creator Paul William Davies (who was a writer and producer on Scandal, by the way) already had ideas for season 2. Maybe the show would’ve continued with a different mystery, perhaps even outside the White House, that Cordelia Cupp and her partner, FBI agent Edwin Park, have to solve.
“I really love Cordelia Cupp; I really enjoyed coming up with her and writing her. Uzo is amazing,” Davies told Deadline. “I love the relationship between Cordelia and Edwin. There are lots more stories to tell about her adventures and him with her. We’ll see how people feel about the show but I certainly would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought a lot about it, and didn’t have a lot of ideas about where it could go.”
Who would’ve been in the season 2 cast?
It’s unclear if the full season 1 cast would’ve returned if The Residence had been renewed. Still, Aduba would have probably reprised her role as the eccentric bird lover Cordelia Cupp to handle another case, much like other famous on-screen detectives, Hercule Poirot or Benoit Blanc. Same goes for Randall Park as Agent Edwin Park. Both actors were open to doing more and working together again.
“We talk about that all the time, we would love it, in part because we had such a great time in the actual making of this show,” Park told Deadline. “But also, the characters’ dynamic is just so fun to play, and Paul is so singular in his writing style and in the way he approaches these mysteries that the opportunity to maybe travel to another country and solve another case would be pretty amazing.”
Aduba added that she was “absolutely” interested in doing another season. “I love playing Cordelia. What I know for sure is that the adventures and the cases will never stop. There’s always going to be something in the world to solve. She has found an amazing partner and friend in Edwin Park, and I wish nothing more for them to continue solving, exploring and journeying around the world,” she said.
The actress also spoke about Cordelia and Edwin’s growing relationship to TV Insider. “They’re in the budding phase of their friendship and have developed a shorthand between each other....They have one great case under their belt, and I’m happy to imagine what else they might do [or] get into.”
Park added: “The people behind the show, working with Uzo [and] everyone was just so lovely and we had so much fun, [so] the thought of making more is just thrilling.”
This story will be updated.
