Sex Education Season 3 Time Jump Confirmed By Asa Butterfield
Asa Butterfield confirms that season 3 of Sex Education will jump ahead in time, finding Otis a bit more mature and a bit more sassy.
Sex Education star Asa Butterfield confirmed that the show's upcoming third season will feature a time jump. The Netflix original series follows Otis Milburn (Butterfield), an awkward teen who, despite his own sexual inexperience, runs an underground sex therapy clinic at his high school. Emma Mackey, Ncuti Gatwa, Gillian Anderson, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Aimee Lou Wood, and Patricia Allison star alongside Butterfield, with Jemima Kirke (Girls) and Jason Isaacs (Harry Potter, Star Trek: Discovery) joining the cast for season 3.
Sex Education's third season, which was written by creator Laurie Nunn, was originally expected to hit Netflix in January of 2021. But COVID-19 had other plans. Filming was postponed from April to September of 2020 and Netflix has yet to announce an official release date. The delay is especially painful considering season 2's brutal cliffhanger, where one character's betrayal keeps Maeve and Otis from confessing their romantic feelings to each other once again.
But in a recent interview with The Guardian, Asa Butterfield provided some inside information about Sex Education season 3 that should temporarily satiate fans as they eagerly await the show's upcoming installment. He said the show won't take place immediately after season 2, and will instead jump ahead in time. Season 3 finds Otis back at school with "different things on his plate" in addition to his complicated friendship and could-be romance with Maeve Wiley (Mackey). According to Butterfield, Otis has matured a bit since season 2 and has also become sassier. Check out his full statement below:
"There’s a bit of a time jump since the season two cliffhanger. Otis is back at school but he’s got different things on his plate. He’s grown up a bit and become slightly more sassy. It’s been fun to portray his newfound charisma. Don’t worry, though, he’s still tragically awkward too."
But the news may be frustrating for fans who are desperate to see Maeve and Otis rectify the miscommunication that broke hearts in the season 2 finale. The time jump suggests the cliffhanger will not be addressed (or at least not resolved) immediately, and it may even take the duration of the season for fans to get closure. The showrunners were bold enough to end season 2 on such an unresolved note, so it makes sense that they'll continue to stretch out the conflict between Maeve and Otis for as long as possible.
Hopefully the new issues Otis has to deal with are compelling enough to distract from the soul-crushing ending of season 2. And who knows, perhaps a more mature Otis will be better equipped to handle his feelings for Maeve and better able to efficiently clear up the voicemail drama. But like any show or movie, Sex Education needs to be rife with conflict in order to maintain viewership, so fans can expect many more storylines whose main function is to keep Maeve and Otis apart.
Source: The Guardian