‘The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Season 2: Everything We Know

Credit: Courtesy of HBO Max

'The Sex Lives of College Girls’ Season 2: Everything We Know

Officially going back to Essex! The Sex Lives of College Girls is returning for season 2. Pauline Chalamet, Reneé Rapp, Amrit Kaur and Alyah Chanelle Scott star in the HBO Max series, playing college roommates Kimberly, Leighton, Bela and Whitney, respectively. The Sex Lives of College Girls, which premiered its 10-episode season 1 in November 2021, was co-created by Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble. “In this first season … there’s obviously so much fun stuff that happens to them, but they are really a lot of trials that they have to go through, each of them. We wanted them to go through serious s—t and traumatizing s—t, and seeing how they deal with it,” the Office alum told Collider about the main four characters. “By putting those characters through the ringer like that, it helped us have them depend on each other a little bit more. They really don’t want to. They’re randomly assigned roommates, and some of them say, ‘I don’t wanna be living with you.’ Life can be really hard on campuses for young women and we wanted to show all of that, and not just the fun, sexy part, but the parts that were a little uglier, to be honest.” [jwplayer RrnDkFud-zhNYySv2] The streaming service renewed The Sex Lives of College Girls for a second season in December 2021. “Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble have created and written a show that is full of heart, female friendships, and awkward naked parties,” Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, said in a statement at the time. “We are delighted that this comic, honest portrayal of the college condition has resonated for everyone, whether they had sex in college or not. We can’t wait to see where these uniquely complex yet relatable characters will go next.” Scott, for her part, told Entertainment Weekly that she wants to see “that friendship with the four of them really solidify” in season 2. “You see it by the end of the season,” she explained. “But I want to see them really settle in and it get really familiar and maybe even a little messy.” The actress continued: “Personally, I hope Whitney has a moment of coming into herself and her identity. I feel like she's been compartmentalizing and running from a lot of things and hasn't fully had a second to be by herself, and to figure out herself, and come into her identity in all types of ways, like racial identity at this place and all of these things I want that for her so badly.” Scroll through for everything we know about season 2 of The Sex Lives of College Girls:

Credit: HBO Max

The Premiere Date

Season 2 of The Sex Life of College Girls premieres on November 17, 2022, on HBO Max.

Credit: HBO Max

The Cast

In addition to the four leading ladies — Chalamet, Rapp, Kaur and Scott — series regulars Midori Francis, Chris Meyer, Ilia Isorelýs Paulino, Lauren Spencer and Renika Williams are expected to return for season 2.

Credit: Courtesy of HBO Max

No Nico

Leatherwood exclusively revealed to Us Weekly in March 2022 that he opted not to reprise his role as Nico Murray when the series returns. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina alum explained that, while he was “happy to do the first season” of The Sex Lives of College Girls, he’ll be “branching off and going in a different direction.”

Credit: HBO Max

Whitney and Canaan’s Future

After a messy affair with her soccer coach, Scott is rooting for her character to explore her relationship with Meyer’s Canaan.

“Chris, in life, who plays Canaan, he is just one of the coolest, most naturally funny people ever, so filming anything with him is the best time and I always love watching it back. I'm just glad we get to Canaan,” she told EW. “[More] Canaan [in season 2] — that would be really great.”

Showrunner Noble also “ships” the pair.

“They are so charming. … I love watching them together. Alyah and Chris are just so fantastic, and the screen just loves them together,” he told TVLine. “So hopefully better things on the horizon for Whitney, romantically, and in all other ways.”

Credit: HBO Max

What’s Next for Nico and Kimberly?

Chalamet’s Kimberly and Leatherwood’s Nico have great chemistry on the series, but their romance was cut short after she learned he had a secret girlfriend (who was studying abroad). “I think Nico does have real feelings for Kimberly, and I think he kind of had them all along,” Noble told TVLine.

In the finale, Nico gives Kimberly permission to turn over the tests she stole from his fraternity after she was caught cheating. “Nico, doing a kindness at his own expense to help her out when he sees her floundering, it didn’t feel like it was an attempt to right the wrong of cheating, because I don’t think that’s a fair thing,” Noble said. “I don’t think we should walk away from that going, ‘Oh, maybe he’s a good guy.’ He was a bad guy in terms of a love interest to her. But it does show that he cares about her, and maybe he’s an imperfect character, but he did have true feelings for her all along.”

While Essex doesn’t expel Kimberly, she loses her scholarship. According to Noble, Kimberly’s actions will “most certainly” lead to fallout for Nico and his frat brothers.

“If you watch the show pretty closely, in episode 5, we kind of allude that some of the frats are on strike two of a three-strike system [and one] frat is now an Amazon fulfillment center. So I don’t think that bodes well for [Nico’s frat],” he explained. “Now that the president has that information from Kimberly, here’s going to be some backlash on them.”

Credit: HBO Max

Leighton’s Love Life

After coming out to Kimberly in the season 1 finale, Leighton’s journey is just getting started. “Will it be a secret between the two of them that the other two suitemates don’t know about? Will Leighton jump out of the closet with two feet? That remains to be seen,” Noble teased to TVLine.

When asked about the possibility of Leighton getting back together with Alicia (Francis), the writer admitted Alicia is one of his “absolute favorite characters,” telling the outlet: “Midori is so incredibly talented and magnetic and watchable. And the chemistry between her and Reneé, who I think the absolute world of as a performer, is something that I can’t imagine not giving myself more of as a viewer, let alone the writer.”

Credit: HBO Max

More of Bela’s Comedy — and Eric

After Bela quit the college’s most prestigious comedy group, The Catullan, after being sexually harassed, Noble promises that “better things are on the horizon for Bela” in season 2. In addition to forming her all-female troupe, sparks were flying between Bela and Eric (Mekki Leeper) in the finale.

“A seed has been planted, yes. Both Amrit and Mekki, who plays Eric, are just so hilarious and fun together,” he told TVLine. “And we should be seeing some more of Bela and Eric in the future."

"I think Bela might be ready to enter into a relationship," Noble explained to EW in September 2022. "Bela is a stand-in for a lot of people in their college experience, which is that she doesn't really know what she wants. And I think depending on the day of the week, she might think that she's ready to be in a relationship with someone, or she might still be in that flavor-of-the-week fun party vibe where she just wants to meet new people all the time and not be pinned down. That's a journey that we could see Bela going through this season, kind of figuring out, where is she at? Is she ready to date for the first time in her life probably?"

Credit: Marion Curtis/StarPix for Focus Features/Shutterstock

Upping the Ante

"It's called The Sex Lives of College Girls for a reason and I think all four of the girls are fun and experimenting and doing lots of fun stuff," Kaling told Entertainment Tonight in June 2022. "There's more heartbreak, there's a lot more sex and there's some really funny new characters and some new hot guys."

She added: "I grew up very repressed so this show is so sexy and sexual. Like, let's be honest, it's sexual. There are things that shock me and I'm the creator of the show! I'm like, 'Wow, OK.' But nothing is just shock for shock value. It's really funny and I think people will feel it's relatable."

Credit: Shutterstock (2)

Kimberly Is 'Exploring Her Options'

With Nico no longer on her mind, Kimberly will officially be back on the market in season 2. "We can expect that Kimberly is going to be exploring her options," Chalamet told E! News in June 2022. To find the best way to handle Leatherwood's departure from the show, Kaling and Noble turned to another iconic HBO series.

"Mindy and I are excited about the new love interest that we're introducing for characters who maybe were involved with Nico last season," he told E! News at the same time. "We really loved Sex and the City, and how they would keep new love interests coming in and out all the time. So it's kind of fun to get into what that rotation could be. No one's really gone forever."

Credit: Barry King/FilmMagic

Will There Be New Characters?

In August 2022, Deadline reported that Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ son, Charlie Hall, would join the second season cast as Andrew, a student at Essex College.

Credit: Courtesy of HBO Max

The Trailer

HBO Max dropped the official trailer for The Sex Life of College Girls season 2 in October 2022, one month before its premiere. In the clip, Kimberly, Whitney, Bela and Leighton have returned to Essex after Thanksgiving break as they continue to deal with the ups and downs of college life.

The YouTube clip also teases the arrival of former Division I athlete Jackson (Mitchell Slaggert) who has recently transferred to Essex — and the girls’ dorm floor.