Will There Be A 'Sanditon' Season 2?

Period drama Sanditon concluded with an ending that left many fans reeling - marquee couple "Sidlotte" were split up, as Sidney promised to marry a rich heiress to gain access to the money to pay off his brother's massive debts and Charlotte headed home to her father's farm in tears.  Suffice it to say, this isn't exactly how a Jane Austen story is meant to wrap up, so many people are wondering: What's next?

Here's what we know at the moment about the show's future, and whether you can expect to see the seaside resort town again.

Fair warning: It's not good news.

The eight episode first season of Sanditon concluded this February on Masterpiece. You can still watch it in its entirely via PBS Passport if you're a member of your local station or via the Amazon Masterpiece Prime Video channel if you've got Amazon Prime. The story ended on a cliffhanger, with plenty of plots unresolved, including the status of its main romance and the future of the town itself. (Sanditon, you see, got burned down in the finale episode.)

Given that this show is based on Austen's unfinished final novel, there's always been sort of an air about it that the show might continue past one season. Adaptations of the author's other works come complete with a definite endpoint, which means we, as viewers, know we're always moving toward Darcy confessing his feelings for Lizzie, or Emma realizing she's loved Mr. Knightley all along. There's only so much runway to work with, if you get my drift. But here, Sanditon left showrunner Andrew Davies a lot more room to manuever, and I get why he and so many others saw potential for a multi-season arc for the show. And from the very beginning of this process, that's what he's been saying was his goal.

So far, that hasn't happened.

Last December, roughly a month after Sanditon finished airing in the U.K., the series' official Twitter account announced that ITV, the U.K. network which produced the show, would not be going forward with a second season. The account said that Charlotte and the rest of the Sanditon gang would have to try their luck abroad, indicating that any plans for another run would largely be impacted by how the show performed in America, and whether they might find another producer or distrubor willing to take it on.