Ever since the enticing Netflix series, set in a charming small town, premiered mid-quarantine, we’ve been hankering for more! And it should be a sweet New Year now that Netflix has revealed the launch date of Friday, February 4, 2022! “As Season 2 opens, Maddie, Helen, and Dana Sue learn who is in the car. But that’s just the first of many surprises that come out of Prom Night—surprises that reshape relationships all over town,” a Netflix press release reveals. “Friendships flounder. Old loves end and new loves begin. Long-hidden secrets disrupt jobs, change lives, and shift the balance of power in Serenity. Everyone is affected. But in laughter and in loss, the Sweet Magnolias continue to fight for what is right for themselves and the people they love—even when those efforts come with a high price tag. Will they find there are some problems not even Margarita Night can solve? Come pour it out and find out!” The dramatic show is about three lifelong BFFs–Maddie Townsend, Dana Sue Sullivan, and Helen Decatur–who are able to lift each other up as they juggle romance, relationships, careers, and family in their charming town of Serenity, South Carolina. Among the reasons this delectable show became an instant fan favorite is because it felt like “comfort food” during the global health pandemic that kept many of us isolated and homebound during much of 2020. Many fans have re-watched Season 1’s episodes while they patiently waited for the series to return. At last, we have good news from JoAnna Garcia Swisher, who plays Maddie, the newly divorced single mom, who is working on a vibrant Act 2. “I feel like Sweet Magnolias is now going to be synonymous with torturing people,” Swisher exclusively tells Parade.com. Swisher says that as a strong female she wants Maddie to be a positive example for girls and young women. “I really wanted Maddie to be a survivor. I didn’t want her to be a victim. She definitely had a lot happen to her at the beginning of our story, but just because she got through that doesn’t mean that there’s not another one coming. It’s life, right? You survive and it’s all about how you choose to navigate those waters.” Based on a popular series of 11 novels by Chesapeake Shores author Sherryl Woods, the show explores universal themes of new love, romance, heartbreak, betrayal, family angst, small-town gossip and the beloved friends who keep us sane through all of this. “We [the writing staff], deeply appreciate how passionately everyone has embraced Sweet Magnolias,” showrunner SherylAnderson exclusively tells Parade.com. “At this time when so many of us can’t be with the people we love, we understand your impatience to return to Serenity. Please know we are pouring our hearts into all the answers and the new questions that are at the center of Season 2, and we’re anxious to bring all of that and more to you as soon as we safely can. In the meantime, have a virtual Margarita with friends, watch Season 1 again, and take care of yourselves!” Keep reading for everything you need to know to get ready for “the warm hug” that will be Sweet Magnolias Season 2, including quite a few spoilers!
What is the Netflix show Sweet Magnolias about?
At its core, it’s about female friendship. “I think there have been other terrific shows about female friendship and about romance,” explains Anderson, “but I think chef Dana Sue would tell you we figured out the exact proportions to focus on a deep and abiding friendship that has lasted their entire lives–seasoned with romances, pinches of teen angst and a lovely icing of hot men.” “To be able to be genuinely invested in the power of women coming together in joy and heartbreak, and to be able to dig down into what it means to be a true friend and a good neighbor–especially during our fractured times—was a joy," she says. “And another thing that makes our show different is that everyone had such a good time making it.I am making a show that I am passionate about; that speaks to subjects and themes that are incredibly important to me and doing it with people I respect and adore. There are so many blessings in that package that I continue to unwrap with great joy.”
What happened in Sweet Magnolias Season 1?
With all of Season 1’s twists and turns, it’s no surprise viewers have oodles of questions going into Season 2, primarily about those last few minutes of Season 1. Remember that cliffhanger of a car crash in which Maddie and Bill’s eldest son Kyle is left unconscious and we are left eager to find out who the passenger in the car is? Yeah, that one. But let’s rewind a little first. At the heart of the story are the friendships between devoted mom of three Maddie Townsend, (Swisher); chef and single mom of a teenage daughter Annie (Anneliese Judge), Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott); and attorney Helen Decatur (Heather Headley). Amid all of their personal drama, the three BFFs make their childhood dream come true by opening The Corner Spa. The show opens with Maddie grappling with her fresh divorce to her doctor-husband Bill Townsend (Chris Klein), town gossip about his pregnant girlfriend Noreen Fitzgibbons (Jamie Lynn Spears), and how her three children are dealing with the aftershocks of the divorce. If this wasn’t dramatic enough, Maddie reluctantly begins a romance with her teen son’s baseball coach Cal (Justin Bruening). But after feeling neglected, his now-fiancée Noreen leaves Bill. Then, he approaches Maddie about giving him a second chance. Helen breaks up with her on-again-off-again boyfriend (for good?) and is desperate for a child. Dana Sue has her own problems trying to keep her restaurant afloat and at the end of the season is confronted with the fact she may have an estranged son working in her kitchen. Plus, she is dealing with her estranged husband Ronnie from her past and the hunky farmer who could be her future. The big cliffhanger at the end of Season 1, which left many of us speechless, was the outcome of the fight from the after-prom party. It led to a car crash that left Maddie and Bill’s eldest son Kyle unconscious. However, it was never revealed who the passenger in the car was—so that’s the major looming question leading into Season 2.
Is Sweet Magnolias currently filming Season 2?
The series wrapped filming in the summer of 2021 after a COVID-19 related delay. The Netflix official announcement for Season 2 came out on July 23, 2020. At the time, showrunner Anderson said, “I am thrilled and excited to come back with a cast and crew that I love so much. It’s such a valentine to everybody who worked so hard to make Serenity such a beautiful place. JoAnna, Brooke, Heather, and I were jumping up and down while texting each other, and we look forward to doing that over Zoom, too.”
When will Sweet Magnolias Season 2 be released?
Netflix has confirmed the Season 2 release date of Friday, February 4, 2022. “I think it’s a pretty safe bet that you will be able to start binging Season 2 very early in 2022,” Swisher reveals. “I hope that everyone feels even more connected to the show in Season 2. We are very much looking forward to continuing to do that. So, I hope that we will have many more opportunities to talk about Sweet Magnolias.” The exact launch date, though, has yet to be announced. Previously, Anderson said, “There are a lot of unknowns. I don’t want to get people’s hopes up, but we are doing our best to implement it as quickly as possible. The launch date is up to Netflix. We know the passion of our fans, so we are doing it as quickly as possible. But, right now, we have neither a release date nor a trailer.” Author Woods recently added on Twitter, “We are so excited about bringing you all Season 2 of SweetMagnolias.”
Who is in the Sweet Magnolias cast?
JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Maddie Townsend)
A Florida native, Garcia Swisher is best known for playing Reba McEntire’s daughter Cheyenne Hart-Montgomery in the sitcom Reba from 2001-2007. She also starred in TV’s Freaks and Geeks, Animal Practice, Once Upon a Time and The Astronaut Wives Club. She is the mother of two young children and happily married to former Major League baseball player Nick Swisher. The couple is involved in a family philanthropic foundation and has traveled to Afghanistan on a USO tour to greet troops and tour military facilities. What does Swisher appreciate about her character? “Maddie has got a little feistiness to her,” she tells Parade.com. “I think that she runs a tight ship. I love that she’s not going to let her hardships bring her down,” she continues. “And what I look forward to seeing, hopefully, are the realizations and putting the pieces back together. Really pushing through where her life is and where it’s headed. She’s not a victim by any stretch of the imagination” When asked about Maddie’s divorce, family angst, and romance with Coach Cal, a pivotal aspect of the show, Swisher sees her character’s issues as important life lessons for all of us, “Obviously, I have not experienced at all what my character went through. But the idea that you can be so wholly dedicated to your family and sometimes lose sight of all the other things that are really important, that’s one of the things I really wanted to celebrate this year with Maddie’s journey. And really allowing herself to maybe let go a little bit. Maddie was forced to let go, and grapple with forgiveness and really the idea of how that makes you feel. It’s a bitter pill sometimes to swallow but sometimes in a selfish way, it makes you feel better to not hold onto things and let go. I think she allowed herself to do that a little bit more in Season 2. I was really excited to lean into that. But the smooth sailing doesn’t last for long.”
Dana Sue Sullivan (Brooke Elliott)
Elliott is an actress and a singer with a strong background in musical theater, including the U.S. tours of Beauty and the Beast, Wicked and the Broadway productions of Taboo and The Pirate Queen. Before Sweet Magnolias, she was best known for her role as Jane Bingum on Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva. “I think Dana Sue is just fantastic,” Elliott says. “I think she is so complex, she’s got so much going on, as so many of us do. I love that she has things to still learn.” And she loves her struggles. “Dana Sue kind of goes through it in Season 1. She’s going through a lot and she has some defenses going on. She has some black and white thinking for sure.” She adds, “I think she’s funny and strong, and I think she’s trying. There is so much I love about her.” But, she sways from Dana in a few ways. “I do have a little more understanding of the nuance in life, so I’m not as hard-line-drawing as Dana, but I love as fiercely as she does, and I feel like I work as hard and I am as committed as she is to the things in her life, and the things that she is working for and that are important to her.”
Heather Headley (Helen Decatur)
Devoted mom and Trinidad native, Headley is a singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-award-winning actress. She won the 2000 Tony Award for best actress in a musical for her role as Aida. She also won the 2010 Grammy Award for best contemporary R&B Gospel Album for her album Audience of One. Before Sweet Magnolias, she was best known for her role as Gwen Garrett on NBC’s Chicago Med. “Sometimes we go into these projects and you’re kind of aware, you’re hoping, ‘I’ll get to play her again,’ as in a Season 2,” says Headley. “But you still want to make sure that you like your character and you can stand behind her, so I did like her from the beginning.” Headley used her experience onstage to inform her Sweet Magnolias performance. “I think she’s a little bit of all my favorite girls that I’ve had to play. She’s a lot of Aida and a little bit of Nala. She’s kind of got all these people. And I know that she’s got a lot of Heather in her, or I have a lot of Helen in me.” Headley says she and Helen share many similarities. “I think I enjoy the fixing of things. I want to fix, I want to make things better for people. I want to see the good in them and I just always want harmony and happiness around me,” she says. “And yet, I guess this is the Nala part, there’s a little lioness in there that if you mess with my people, I’ll kind of come out. I’m not aggressive or fighting, but I will defend. I’ll fight them in a different way, in whatever way I can. Or protect, I should say. So, I feel like that’s Helen. I think she’s incredibly loyal and gets hurt when that loyalty is sometimes not returned or reciprocated. And I feel like that’s the part of me, I know this side of Helen.” She can also relate to Helen’s yearning to be a parent. “We now have three children, but I remember a time when there was the struggle of having a baby, and how that is, and how painful that is,” Headley reveals. “There’s a point where we kind of go through our careers and we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, I did my career, this is so great.’…And everything else you’ve worked for and you’ve gotten, it’s been easy, like Helen’s law degree or me with music. You’ve worked for it, you’ve achieved it, and this is the one thing that it’s kind of right beyond your fingertips and you can’t catch it. I understand that pain or that hurt for Helen, and especially with time kind of passing. So, yes, I feel like there’s a lot there that I can commiserate and celebrate with her.”
Chris Klein (Bill Townsend)
Klein, best known for his TV and film roles in Election, American Pie, and The Flash, says he is looking forward to what happens in Season 2. “Sheryl keeps things very close to the vest. I have heard a few little things that are not sharable and they may not even be true. What has been the most fun part is the cliffhanger developed for Season 1 took hold and the audience really invested themselves and they are all wondering who was in the car – to be part of that level of anticipation and support on a show is awesome. I have felt that before on other shows, from a performer standpoint, is what you hope for. It happened for us for Season 1 and the bar is really high now for Season 2. Now we’ve got to match and exceed everyone’s expectations. We all saw there is the potential to build something awesome. This turned out to be a really cool product.” He said that while he knows the fans often see his character, Bill, (Maddie’s ex-husband) as the bad guy, his practice, he told Parade.com, is “not to pass judgment; that’s the audience’s part.” He acknowledged that “Bill takes the audience on quite a ride from episode 1 to 1o. People feel complicated about how to feel – is he bad or good. But I say that he is human. I would say that Bill has a long way to go.” These are his choices and we are going to watch these choices. As a husband and new father, it was really interesting to explore all of this through the lends of Sweet Magnolias. I cannot say enough about JoAnna Garcia Swisher as a person and as a performer. The other actors in Sweet Magnolias include:
Jamie Lynn Spears (Noreen Fitzgibbons)
Justin Bruening (Coach Cal Maddox)
Logan Allen (Kyle Townsend)
Anneliese Judge (Annie Sullivan)
Carson Rowland (Tyler “Ty” Townsend)
Are there new characters for Sweet Magnolias Season 2?
There are, but Anderson isn’t giving any names away just yet. “Yes, but nobody that I can share about this early in the process. We certainly have some great thoughts about new citizens of Serenity,” Anderson reveals. “There will be new alliances between existing citizens of Serenity.”
Is anyone leaving the cast of Sweet Magnolias for Season 2?
Don’t worry, your favorites will all be back! “I think that everyone will be pleased to know that of our group of series regulars, everyone, will be back in some form,” Anderson says. Well, that means whoever is in the car crash likely survives! Or at least Kyle does! And even Noreen might not be gone for good. “Just because someone leaves town doesn’t mean you will never see them again,” teases Anderson. “Sometimes you move away thinking you are going home and it’s surprising where home turns out to be.”
Who was in the car crash at the end of Sweet Magnolias Season 1?
“The surprises of prom night don’t end at the accident site,” Anderson promises. Headley also opened up to Parade.com about where Season 1 left us. “I remember the last time we read the final episode. And we all kind of looked at Sheryl and said, ‘OK, so who’s in the car?’ And she just looked at us and smiled and said, ‘If we ever get a second season, God help us, I’ll tell you then.’ And I was like, ‘You’re joking, right? You are joking.’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not telling you,’” Headley recalls. “So we’ve been going through this much longer than you guys have. We’ve had a year of thinking, who’s in the car? And now another year of, who’s in the car? So yeah, Sherryl won’t speak. I need a truth serum for that one.” Even costar Elliott doesn’t know who’s in the car. “I really don’t know what’s planned for Season 2,” she told Parade.com.
Are there any Sweet Magnolias Season 2 spoilers?
Amid the looming questions for Season 2 are: What will happen with Maddie and Cal’s romance? Is Dana Sue going to give her heart to Ronnie or farmer Jeremy, the hot new guy? Is Helen going to pursue her motherhood dreams? What will happen with Erik and Helen? And…what does Anderson have to say about this? “First of all, we know there are a lot of questions, and as viewers and fans, I can say that all of your questions will be answered. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be new questions. I would take a bullet for anyone in Serenity, but I prefer it be a theoretical one,” says Anderson. “It’s the age-old dilemma of drama–we want our characters to be happy but simply put if they are happy there is no conflict and there is no drama," she says. “I like characters who evolve, grow and change and are not always easy. Sometimes the most important change is hard. Adversity doesn’t build character it reveals it, and a lot of people never learn it.” She continues, “We were very conscious of this in Sweet Magnolias because sometimes in a romantic setting your instinct is to smooth all the bumps away, but I feel that when you achieve something that you wanted and the journey has been hard you cherish it even more. It’s tough to understand when you are a teen, but we want to honor the battle scars for all of our characters and not just celebrate what’s going right. I believe that God doesn’t give you greater gifts than friends who stand by you and reach down deep and catch you when you are about to fall.” “All three of our ladies have to grapple with big choices about where they are headed as individuals,” Anderson teases, “and where they are headed as romantic partners.” Elliott has some ideas for what she’d like to see happen to her character in the future. “I’m kind of excited to see if Dana Sue pursues anything with our little sexy farmer,” she says. “I don’t know because now her husband Ronnie has entered back into the picture. The relationship with Ronnie, it’s one of those where they have some deep love and some deep passion, and so that’s not easy for her to say goodbye to,” she says. “She’s got a lot of defenses, and of course, she’s hurt that he strayed from the marriage. Again, this is one of those areas where Dana Sue doesn’t always have the ability to say, ‘I don’t even know what move to make, I’m so hurt.’” Elliott explains, “She tends to go, ‘You know what, you’re out!’ She doesn’t understand coming from that point of, here is my raw heart about what has happened.” But Elliott has no idea where Dana Sue’s relationships are going in Season 2. “I don’t know what Sheryl [Anderson] is doing with that in Season 2, but it’s something that I would like to explore–her finding that ability to really speak what she feels and what she needs, and maybe she’ll get that with Ronnie. Maybe something more will happen with the farmer, too. Why not?” In fact, Elliott says, “Let’s have something happen with the farmer, that would be fun!” We’re in! “I don’t know what Sheryl’s doing with her in Season 2, but I love the area of growth for her, I’d love for Dana Sue to maybe have more strength in living in the gray and not being so quick to defend. But also I love how hard she is trying, I love how hard she’s working. I love how much she loves the people in her life. And so I can’t wait for that to carry through, too,” she adds. ’ “I’m excited to see what happens with the relationship with her daughter Annie. Some of Dana Sue’s qualities that she needs to maybe grow in have caused some issues with her daughter,” Elliott says. “Her daughter didn’t feel she could come to her because there is this line where this is right and this is wrong. And that has caused her own daughter not to be able to go, ‘Hey, I need help in this.’ And so she’s got areas to grow in that relationship as well.”
Is Sweet Magnolias’ Serenity an actual town? Can I visit Serenity?
A majority of the show is filmed in Covington, Georgia, where The Vampire Diaries was also filmed. “It’s a fabulous town because it has a great look and they are also very film-friendly and film knowledgeable,” says Anderson. “There is a group that does a Vampire Diaries tour and they have added a Sweet Magnolias walking tour to it. People are delighted to see the Spa, and its original signage and shrubbery, which is actually a law firm. That small-town charm goes back to that feeling of community.”
How much does Sweet Magnolias stick to the books?
“Our goal is not to be able to tell what was in the book or what the writers created,” Anderson says. “I tried to be careful not to say what we invented and what came from the books. I don’t have that breakdown. I haven’t done the math, but there’s the same balance of old and new in the second season. We are focusing on the first three books because there is a time jump after that. We didn’t really flag, ’this or that is from the book.’”
How to watch and stream Sweet Magnolias
Sweet Magnolias is available to stream exclusively on Netflix. All Season 1 episodes are available to stream there now. Until Sweet Magnolias Season 2, why not try one of these incredible foreign shows on Netflix?
