Anya Taylor-Joy won big at the Golden Globes awards this year, snagging the Best Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture for TV award for her lead role in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. Despite the series only running for one season, it quickly became a critical darling and an audience favorite. Following the actress’s Golden Globes win, the call for a second season of the show gathered renewed strength online. In an interview with ET Online, Taylor-Joy expressed her willingness to return for a new season, the prospects of which appear unlikely at this point.
“Maybe. Not to disappoint anybody, but we just never thought about it. It was always a sapling to tree transition. You see her grow, you leave her in a good place. So we were genuinely surprised when people were like, ‘Where’s season 2?’ That being said, I adore the entire team that made it and I would jump at the chance to work with them again.”
Based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, The Queen’s Gambit tells the story of Beth Harmon, played by Taylor-Joy. Orphaned at a young age, Beth finds comfort in playing chess, where she quickly establishes herself as a prodigy.
Unfortunately, Beth’s triumphant chess career constantly comes close to derailing due to her troubled personal life. Between losing her real mother, and her adopted mother, developing an addiction to pills, and keeping those close to her at arm’s length, Beth soon finds herself at a crossroads, facing the biggest challenge in her chess career with no one to turn to for support. According to Anya Taylor-Joy, the joy of portraying such a complex character was equaled by discovering how much audiences connected with Beth.
“One of my favorite things about her was because she was raised in this interesting way, she never really saw her gender as something that told her what she could or couldn’t want. And I really enjoyed playing that, especially in the context of the ’60s. So I think more than playing a strong woman, I feel very honored to have played such an interesting, complex person. And I’m very proud of that. I’m just so grateful that people connected to this story and connected with that as much as they did because she means so much to me. Whenever you do a project, it kind of feels like you’re throwing your baby out of a window and when people catch it, that’s just the best feeling in the world.”
Even though Season 1 of The Queen’s Gambit ended on a pretty definite note, with Beth becoming the new chess grandmaster, it would be interesting to see in a new season how the young heroine adjusts to the changes in her life while continuing to deal with her past demons. The Queen’s Gambit stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Isla Johnson, Bill Camp, Moses Ingram, Christiane Seidel, Rebecca Root, Chloe Pirrie, Akemnji Ndifornyn, Marielle Heller, Harry Melling, Patrick Kennedy, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Marcin Dorocinski. The series is now streaming on Netflix. This news originated at ET Online.