'Sanditon' Season 2 Sets March Premiere Date, Reveals First Photos

Prepare your emotions: We'll all be heading back to Sanditon this Spring. PBS has confirmed that Season 2 of the popular Jane Austen adaptation will arrive on March 20, 2022, for a six-episode run. 

Though the first season initially aired on PBS in January of 2020, that particularly wintertime slot has since been usurped by the popular remake of All Creatures Great and Small. (Whose second season is currently slated to begin on January 9 of next year.) As a result, Sanditon will shift to the spring, a move that feels more than a bit suited to this sort of series' rebirth. 

According to Masterpiece, Season 2 will pick up nine months after the dramatic events of the first, when we last saw Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) tearfully departing Sanditon in the wake of a painful romantic setback. But life moves on and even broken hearts mend, and there's little that can keep a town like Sanditon down. As the resort grows in popularity, an influx of new faces arrives on the scene, promising all-new adventure and romance. 

Of course, as most fans are already well aware Sanditon will be missing some key residents this spring - including both of Charlotte's former love interests, Theo James and Leo Suter.

The actors both landed rather high-profile roles in the months that Sanditon's future looked to be rather grim, on The Time Traveller's Wife and Vikings: Valhalla, respectively. But, not to worry, there are still plenty of other fish in the sea. (And according to the official synopsis, Charlotte will catch the eye of at least two of them.)

Along with the official premiere announcement came a batch of first look photos, showing off Charlotte's return to the seaside resort town. The new images also give us our first glimpse at Outlander's Rosie Graham as Charlotte's spirited younger sister Alison, who is starry-eyed and on the hunt for her own love story during her first adventure away from home.

On the plus side, much of Season 1's cast is returning, including Kris Marshall, Kate Ashfield, and Turlough Convery as Tom, Mary, and Arthur Parker, which makes it likely we'll at least get a verbal update on how ridiculous rich and generally unhappy Sidney is. (Your loss, my man!)

Tom is still Sanditon's grand visionary, and doing all that he can to rebuild the town after the events of last season (which let's not forget were pretty much his own fault.) But between unforeseen issues and the secrets and lies of the dysfunctional Denhams, his task is will certainly not be easy and may well be impossible. 

As for the Denhams, Anne Reid is slated to return, as well as Jack Fox as the scheming Edward Denham and Charlotte Spencer as Esther Denham Babbington. Unfortunately, Mark Stanley - who plays her husband Lord Babbington - will not be back, which leaves the state of their marriage (and honestly, my heart) in limbo for now. 

Elsewhere, Crystal Clarke is back as the heiress Georgiana Lambe, who is now on the cusp of turning 21 - and claiming her fortune and future in her own right.

As driven as ever to forge her own identity, the independent, outspoken, and rebellious young woman finds herself once again up to mischief in the name of love. But will it be worth it? (And will we ever find out how she came to be attached to the Parkers in the first place?) 

Season 2 will also see the Army make its new base in Sanditon bringing with it new potential romances, friendships, and challenges for the residents we know and love, including Tom Weston-Jones (Shadow and Bone) as the self-assured war hero Colonel Francis Lennox; Maxin Ays as new soldier Captain William Carter and Frank Blake (Normal People) as the rough around the edges Captain Declan Fraser.

Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Industry) will play Alexander Colbourne, a man with a complex family history, and Alexander Vlahos (Versailles) has been cast as Charles Lockhart, an artist who has come to paint some of the town's more fashionable residents. 

Sanditon is based on Jane Austen's final unfinished novel, of which just eleven chapters exist. Meaning, of course, that this show can truly go in any direction as it digs further into the story of Charlotte and her seaside friends. The series has already been renewed for a third season, which should provide some comfort to the fans who lobbied so hard for it to be resurrected following its initial Season 1 cancellation. (And some much-needed stability for Sanditon itself.) 

Season 1 of Sanditon is currently streaming on both PBS Passport and the PBS Masterpiece channel on Amazon Prime. Let the countdown to March begin!