Michaela Coel is no longer working on an I May Destroy You spinoff

In an update that is most likely for the best, the BBC announced this week (via Deadline) that Michaela Coel is no longer developing a new series with links to her semi-autobiographical hit, I May Destroy You. Back in 2021, Piers Wenger, the network’s drama director at the time, announced to fans of the series that “there is a new show coming along” but it was “at relatively early stages.”

According to Phil Clarke, an executive producer on the original show, Coel toyed for a while with ideas for something she was calling I May Destroy You 2, even though it was never supposed to be a second season in the traditional sense. In the end, however, she decided not to continue. “When Piers went public, we were all talking about it. Those were Michaela’s thoughts as well,” Clarke explained. “But then we rightly decided there wasn’t much more to say. You can only conclude that once you’ve explored it a little bit.”

There were a couple of ways a new show could have gone. If you read this article’s headline and thought, “Why the hell does that show need a spinoff?” you’re certainly not wrong. Airing 12 episodes in 2020, I May Destroy You was a gut-wrenching, genre-defying masterpiece. Following a young writer named Arabella piecing her life back together after being raped, it was loosely inspired by Coel’s own experience with sexual assault. The finale was not only personal but also close to perfect, one that certainly doesn’t need to be undone or amended in any way.

But at the same time, I May Destroy You was as much a hangout comedy (kind of in the vein of Broad City) as it was a visceral exploration of trauma—and a very good one at that. Arabella’s best friends Terry (Weruche Opia) and Kwame (Paapa Essiedu) were fully fleshed out and fascinating characters, fully capable of supporting a show on their own merit.

Even if the plan wasn’t to shift the focus to one of these characters specifically, we’ve seen non-traditional follow-ups to proposed one-season series work before. But while Fleabag’s second season is a pretty bulletproof argument for this route’s potential, that only worked because Phoebe Waller-Bridge had more to say. If Coel doesn’t, then she could not have made a better decision. Still, while she’s had roles in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, and David Lowery’s upcoming Mother Mary since the series wrapped, it would be amazing to get at least one more series from her own brain at some point, even if it has nothing to do with the previous one. As I May Destroy You proved over and over again, she really is a once-in-a-lifetime talent.