‘The Midnight Club’ Season 2 Canceled at Netflix; Here’s Why

Kasey Moore What's on Netflix Avatar
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the midnight club season 2 renewal status what we know so far

The Midnight Club – Cr. Eike Schroter/Netflix © 2022

The Midnight Club, Mike Flanagan’s latest Netflix Original horror series was the first that could’ve gotten a season 2 as part of his deal. However, it’s been confirmed that Netflix has opted not to renew the show for a second season. 

The Midnight Club is a Netflix Original teen-horror series created by Mike Flanagan and the adaptation of the novel of the same by Christopher Pike. The series is the fourth Netflix Original series by Mike Flanagan and his sixth project for Netflix overall.

Over the past several years, Mike Flanagan has been one of Netflix’s best content creators, starting with and every year, subscribers look forward to his latest endeavor in the horror genre.

A group of terminally ill teenage patients resides at Rotterdam Home, and together they create the Midnight Club. They meet in secret at midnight to tell horror stories. Together the group forms a pact that whoever dies first would make the effort to contact the rest of the Midnight Club members from beyond the grave.


The Midnight Club season 2 Netflix renewal status

Has the show been renewed or canceled?

Official Netflix Renewal Status: Canceled

Of the four Mike Flanagan shows made for Netflix, this is the first that we expect to see a second season, which the creator has already confirmed they were looking to do throughout several seasons.

Almost two months after its initial release, The Wrap confirmed that Netflix had not renewed the series citing poor performance (more on this in a second).

Reacting to the news the day after, Mike Flanagan posted:

“I’m very disappointed that Netflix has decided not to pursue a second season of THE MIDNIGHT CLUB.

My biggest disappointment is that we left so many story threads open, holding them back for the hypothetical second season, which is always a gamble.”

Mike Flanagan also answered what would happen in a second season in a Tumblr blog. Concluding the blog, Flanagan said:

“It’s a shame we won’t get to make it, but it would be a bigger shame if you guys simply had to live with the unanswered questions and the cliffhanger ending.

I loved making this show, and I am so proud of the cast and crew. Particularly our cast, who attacked this story with incredible spirit and bravery each and every day.

But for now, we’ll put the fire out, and leave the library dark and quiet.

To those before, and to those after. To us now, and to those beyond.

Seen or unseen, here but not here.

I’ll always be grateful that I got to be part of this Club.”

It came on the same day that Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy (who had been working with Netflix under an overall deal) had shifted over to Prime Video (via Amazon Studios), moving forward with their last project for Netflix being The Fall of the House of Usher.

the midnight club season 2 netflix renewal status mike flanagan

Mike Flanagan directing on the set of The Midnight Club

The Fall of the House of Usher is now in post-production and is expected to be released on Netflix sometime in 2023 and will conclude Flanagan’s output in the so-called Flanaverse on Netflix.


How well did The Midnight Club perform on Netflix?

A renewal will almost certainly come down to performance on the streamer so let’s dive through that now.

The show had one of the weakest first weekends on Netflix that we’ve noted for quite some time. In the official data from Netflix, it only scored 18.79M hours watched globally.

If we compare it to other dramas in 2022, here’s how that stacks up:

  • The Lincoln Lawyer – First three days: 45.09M
  • The Sandman – First three days: 69.48M
  • Partner Track – First three days: 16.66M

Its performance in its first weekend was so bad in our top 10 report for the week ending October 9th, we called it a flop, citing that it had a poorer CVE (Complete Viewings Equivalent) than Dive Club, Partner Track, Archive 81 but did beat Brand New Cherry Flavor and Cowboy Bebop.

the midnight club vs other shows netflix

The Midnight Club vs other launches in 2022

The show featured for three weeks in Netflix’s top 10s before dropping out entirely. Between October 2nd and October 23rd, 2022, the show clocked 90.31 million hours viewed on Netflix.

Critically, however, we saw The Midnight Mass face a nearly 60% drop in viewership in weeks 2 to 3. That kind of drop has often spelled failure for any now-canceled Netflix Original.

Week Period Hours Viewed(M) Rank Week in Top 10
October 2nd, 2022 to October 9th, 2022 18,790,000 4 1
October 9th, 2022 to October 16th, 2022 49,870,000 (+165%) 3 2
October 16th, 2022 to October 23rd, 2022 21,650,000 (-57%) 5 3

Netflix Top 10s provided by FlixPatrol does suggest that in week 2, we saw a big jump in viewership but, like the viewing hours, dropped off dramatically in week 3.

On day 1, the show only managed to get to be the 18th most popular title on the service. On day 2, it rose to rank 5. On day 3, rank 4 and day 4 (which would’ve been outside the metric above), it hit position 2.

Looking at external data, The Midnight Club was the weakest-performing Flanagan show thus far.

Google Trends states that it only managed to garner 34% of the total demand that Midnight Mass demanded only a year prior.

google trends for the midnight club

Google Trends for Mike Flanagan’s shows on Netflix

Demand tool, TelevisionStats.com, also paints a gloomy picture, with the show peaking as the number 6 biggest show in the world in early October 2022 but having since plummeted. It pulls data from Google Trends, Wikipedia, Twitter, Reddit and other sources.

televisionstats the midnight club netflix


What we expected from another season of The Midnight Club at Netflix

The first season’s ending left us with a major cliffhanger, revealing that Doctor Stanton is not only a survivor, but the tattoo on her neck means she is a former member of the Paragon.

We would expect to see Doctor Stanton’s backstory fleshed out in full, revealing the origins of her illness, how she joined the Paragon, how she came to leave the group, why she is at odds with Shasta aka Julia Jayne, and whether or not her motives for running Brightcliffe are well-intentioned or sinister.

the midnight club season 2 netflix renewal status doctor stanton

How much is Doctor Stanton hiding from The Midnight Club?

As for Ilonka and Kevin, they are the only two current members of the Midnight Club who can see the ghost couple of Brightcliff. Little is known about the pair, however, the end of the first season may have revealed that they are in fact Stanley Oscar Freelan and Vera Freelan, Brightcliff’s original owners. But why are Ilonka and Kevin able to see them? And, is Keving being possessed at night, forcing him to wander the halls of Brightcliff?

the midnight club season 2 netflix renewal status ilanka kevin

Star-crossed lovers Ilanka and Kevin are haunted by the ghosts of Brightcliff

Shasta, aka Julia Jayne, failed in her attempt to conduct the ritual in the basement, almost killing three young women in the process. Considering how determined Shasta is to conduct the ritual, we definitely haven’t seen the last of her.

the midnight club season 2 netflix renewal status shasta

What does Shasta aka Julia Jayne have planned for Brightcliff?

Lastly, a second season also begs the question of how long the remaining members of The Midnight Club have to live. And whether or not we expect new members to be inducted into the club.

With the series canceled, these scenarios will not be playing out on our screens.

Flanagan, however, has teased that we may get closure via Twitter.

Speaking to The Wrap, Flanagan told them “I  promised everybody at Comic-Con yesterday that I’d put up all the all the answers to the central mysteries on Twitter, which I will honor,” adding “we made the decision in the writers room not to reveal two of our kind of bigger existential secrets of the show so that we’d have something to say in the second season.”


Would you like to see a second season of The Midnight Club on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!

Written by

Founder of What's on Netflix and based in Norwich in the United Kingdom, Kasey has been tracking the comings and goings of the Netflix library for a decade having started the site in 2013. Kasey maintains the what's new library, keeps the coming soon lists up-to-date and writes about new and upcoming Netflix movies, series and games.