When Does First Kill Season 2 Come Out? Is It Renewed?

What is First Kill about?

First Kill trades on a premise that sounds engineered for peak YA appeal: star-crossed teenagers divided by their families' ancient supernatural war. Juliette is a vampire from old money; Calliope hunts vampires for her family. They fall for each other anyway. It's Romeo and Juliet with fangs, which V. E. Schwab adapts from her own short story. If you're drawn to romance that's heightened by real danger, or to the particular thrill of watching characters keep secrets from people who could destroy them, this show has material to work with.

The eight episodes lean into atmospheric Southern Gothic over action. There's a genuine sense that these families are trapped in their own histories, bound by feuds that have calcified into ideology. Juliette's household feels moneyed and hollow; Calliope's burns with missionary fervor. The show's best instincts are quieter ones—moments of genuine connection between the leads, or scenes that let the tension of keeping this relationship hidden do the heavy lifting. But it also feels uncertain about what it wants to be. The mystery elements never quite cohere, and the supporting cast is largely functional rather than alive.

Critical response was muted. Reviewers acknowledged the appeal of the central romance and the production's glossiness, but noted that the show didn't make a strong case for itself beyond that premise. Audiences were more divided, with fans of Schwab's work and supernatural romance finding enough to hold them through the season. Netflix cancelled it after one shot anyway.

First Kill sits awkwardly between being a show about teen romance that happens to involve vampires and a show about vampires and hunters that happens to have a romance subplot. It never quite lands which thing it's trying to be, which matters more than the concept alone.

Created by V. E. Schwab

Is First Kill renewed or cancelled?

Why was First Kill cancelled?

First Kill arrived at Netflix with genuine momentum. The vampire drama drew a devoted audience during its June 2022 release, finding particular traction among young viewers who gravitated toward its blend of supernatural romance and murder mystery. For a streamer that had been hit-or-miss with genre programming, the show seemed to land something worth developing. Creator Felice Arena had plans for where the story could go, and the cast appeared invested in returning.

But Netflix's tolerance for unproven shows had tightened considerably by mid-2022. The company was cutting costs and scrutinizing viewership numbers with new severity. First Kill faced a common problem for niche hits on the platform: the audience that loved it wasn't large enough to justify the production budget required for a second season. Netflix's viewing metrics showed the show shedding viewers across its eight-episode run, a pattern that made renewal less likely even as die-hard fans created noise on social media. The streamer had learned that passionate fanbases, however vocal, don't always translate to the sustained viewing numbers required to offset expensive production.

The cancellation felt abrupt to viewers because Netflix had given the show little time to prove its longevity or build through word-of-mouth. A single season of eight episodes was too small a sample for the kind of slow-burn success that cable networks might have permitted. By the time any aftermarket interest or critical re-evaluation could happen, Netflix had already moved on, redirecting resources to shows with clearer mass appeal.

First Kill Season 2 Release Date

Best & worst episodes

First Kill seasons

First Kill trailer

Where to watch First Kill

NetflixstreamNetflix Standard with Adsstream

First Kill latest news