How Lena Waithe's Show 'The Chi' Will Go Even Deeper In Season 2

The Chi ends its first season on Sunday, March 18, completing its much talked about 10-episode run. But fans shouldn't worry, because The Chi will return for Season 2. This won't be the last you see of the interconnected stories of protagonists Emmett (Jacob Latimore), Brandon (Jason Mitchell), Ronnie (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine), and Kevin (Alex R. Hibbert), though when those stories will pick back up on your television is currently unknown.

The Chi, from Emmy winning writer Lena Waithe and Common, was an instant hit for Showtime, so it makes sense that the network decided to renew The Chi for Season 2 just four episodes into the show's first season. But Showtime didn't just order another season; the network also announced a new showrunner and executive producer for the series to start in Season 2, Ayanna Floyd Davis, who recently worked on FOX's Empire.

"From viewers and critics alike, the response to the Chi has been so enthusiastic from the very start that our decision to renew the series was an easy one," said Showtime President of Programming Gary Levine in a press release in January, via Entertainment Weekly. "We love the vibrant characters and the nuanced world that Lena has created." Levine added that he trusted Season 2 would have "many more moving, personal, and resonant stories" from Waithe.

Not much is known about what's to come in The Chi Season 2. At a recent panel for the show, Waithe wouldn't say much, though she did promise fans that the series would continue to strive to create the most realistic portrait of life for black Americans in Chicago. "It's going to be blacker and more authentic," she told the audience, as reported by Variety. (It should be noted that Season 1 showrunner, Elwood Reid, is a white man, while his Season 2 replacement, Davis, is a black woman.)

Other than promising a more authentic story, Waithe apparently doesn't really have a strict plan for where The Chi is going, something she credits to the uncertain nature of the television business. "You have to leave a little space for God to come in. I'll hold onto my ideas for some things that I like and I wanna do, and I'll pitch them when the time is right, but I really wanna leave room and space," she said in an interview with Collider.

Whatever happens in Season 2 of The Chi, fans can expect more of the same, which is to say more unique stories and points of view you won't find anywhere else on television. "I want to do things where people say, 'Oh, I haven't seen that before,'" Waithe told Collider. Though she was talking about writing the pilot episode, it's clearly something she aspires to do with everything she creates.

But don't be fooled, just because she like surprising audiences does not mean she's going to fill The Chi Season 2 with silly twists and turns. "I wanted to do something real," she told the crowd at a SXSW event, via The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a unique way to look at black people. We're really just being. We're not tap dancing, we're not trying to get out of the hood, we're not rapping or doing other things we traditionally see on TV." And audiences love the show for it.