Will there be The Last Dance season 2 on Netflix? Kobe Bryant series coming soon?
The Last Dance has captured the attention of sports fans around the world but will there be a season 2?
The Last Dance has proven to be a major success for Netflix as it continues its impressive foray into sports documentaries.
Sunderland 'Til I Die proved to be a big win for the online streaming giant, with two seasons released so far, and The Last Dance could have a future beyond the original run of episodes with a different focus.
Check out the latest details on whether there will be a second season of The Last Dance.
Will there be The Last Dance season 2?
Will we see any more of Michael Jordan and the 90s Chicago Bulls? Almost certainly not. The documentary has been comprehensive in its coverage of Jordan since his high school and college days right the way through his career until the very end.
He was the centre point of the Bulls' success, meaning the show won't just simply follow on the story of the franchise after Jordan's departure.
But does that mean season 2 is off the table? Not exactly.
Viewers were left emotional during The Last Dance as previously unseen interview footage with Kobe Bryant was shown, filmed just weeks before his tragic death in a helicopter accident.
He discusses the impact of Jordan and the documentary shows his first steps in the game as the new pretender to Michael's throne.
Bryant's tragic passing raises the potential for a new season of The Last Dance, should creators decide to turn him into the focus after season one ends. The prospect has been raised...
Will there be a Kobe Bryant series?
Bryant stayed with the LA Lakers for 20 years, building a long-term legacy with one franchise akin to the great Jordan. A camera crew followed Bryant throughout his final season in the NBA in 2015/16, an eerily similar style to how the cameras rolled during Jordan's final Bulls season.
John Black, former Head of PR for the Lakers, told ESPN: "They had unprecedented and, by far, greater access than anyone else ever. We certainly allowed them to do everything we could within what the league would allow, and sometimes, with a wink and look-the-other-way, allowed them even more."
Lakers legend Magic Johnson – who features heavily in The Last Dance – believes a Kobe series is inevitable: "That's definitely going to happen. I think he was smart enough to have a camera follow him, document every movement… so we are going to see a lot of behind-the-scenes things on Kobe and probably let us into his world with his family."
It remains to be seen whether ESPN – the creators of The Last Dance – will pursue the rights to piece Kobe's life story together, but given the similarities between his and Jordan's career, the top notch execution of the series and the success of the TLD series name, it all seems like a perfect fit, a stunning way to honour a true great of the modern era.
What is The Last Dance about?
The year is 1997. Jordan is the hottest property in basketball and American sport overall. He has inspired the one-time rudderless Chicago Bulls to five NBA titles in seven years alongside coach Phil Jackson, but upper management is threatening to break the team apart, starting with a new head coach. Turmoil.
Jackson is set to leave Chicago at the end of 1997/98, and Jordan has had enough, he refuses to play for any other coach, and will leave the Bulls in tandem with Jackson. It's coming to the end of a momentous era, and Jackson labels his plans for the season 'The Last Dance'.
The series boasts the overarching theme of the 1997/98 campaign, but each episode dips back in time to a previous title-winning year, highlighting the journey of the Bulls, the incredible supporting cast and the drama, rivalries, controversies along the way.
Authors
Michael Potts is the Sport Editor for Radio Times, covering all of the biggest sporting events across the globe with previews, features, interviews and more. He has worked for Radio Times since 2019 and previously worked on the sport desk at Express.co.uk after starting his career writing features for What Culture. He achieved a first-class degree in Sports Journalism in 2014.