It’s been almost a week since Space Force premiered on Netflix, and though it features an impressive cast led by Steve Carell who also co-developed the show with The Office creator Greg Daniels, the new comedy series has yet to be renewed for season 2.
Since Netflix series that star big names usually receive two season orders right away or get a second season pickup immediately after they debuted, Space Force fans are left wondering whether or not the show will return for a sophomore run following its cliffhanger ending in season 1.
In a recent interview with Collider, Daniels confirmed that Netflix has yet to hand out a second season renewal to Space Force, but writers of the series have already begun to regroup to talk about the direction of the show moving forward.
“We’re certainly hoping for a few more seasons, and we have started to assemble the senior writers to discuss what would happen next year,” Daniels said. “We don’t have the pickup yet, but yeah. There’s a lot to follow up on based on where we ended.”
Space Force follows a group of people headed by General Mark R. Naird (Carell) tasked with establishing the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Space Force. Per the orders of the President, Space Force’s first huge mission is to send the military to the moon.
With a 6.1 user score on Metacritic and a 76% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, Space Force season 1 is received quite positively by viewers. A lot of critics, however, are not huge fans of the show.
For instance, Joshua Rivera of The Verge called Space Force “an astonishingly bad show,” as the series quickly made it clear that it has little interest in political satire and instead chose to adhere to the conventions of a workplace comedy. “Immediately, the show is rendered toothless, its humor deprived of any bite and pathetically offering up zingers on office rivalries, nepotism, and weird co-workers. The show falls apart before it even gets going,” Rivera wrote in his review of the series.
Matthew Gilbert of Boston Globe, meanwhile, wrote that Space Force lacks vision, “as it veers awkwardly between farce and drama, spoof and romcom.” Gilbert even went on to say that the show “qualifies as the year’s biggest TV disappointment so far.”
Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly shared the same sentiment with Gilbert, writing, “What the show lacks is any kind of comedic vision, or even a fully-formed concept.”
In addition to Carell, Space Force’s main cast include John Malkovich, Ben Schwartz, Diana Silvers, and Tawny Newsome. They are also joined by a star-studded lineup of recurring cast, including Lisa Kudrow, Jane Lynch, Noah Emmerich, Alex Sparrow, Jimmy O. Wang, Don Lake, and many more.