13 Reasons Why creator Brian Yorkey has revealed the second season of the teen drama will explore the theme of sexual abuse.
The fallout from the suicide of high school student Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) and sexual assault will be some of the "central mysteries" of the installment, which premiers on Netflix on May 18.
Yorkey told The Hollywood Reporter that the sexual assault of Jessica Davis, played by Alisha Boe, will also be depicted as she goes takes to the path of recovery. The writer said he wants to examine what it would be for the character to "go from being a victim of sexual assault to being a survivor of sex assault".
He said the stories of sexual harassment come timely with the upsurge of the #MeToo movement in the wake of Hollywood's "worst-kept secret" - the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
"We look at the ways that sexual assault has been perpetrated over a number of years and has been in fact documented, and also the ways in which the institutions - the athletic department, the high school itself - are in some ways complicit in letting that happen.
"When we first developed it, we had these discussions about whether it was realistic to think that serial sexual abuse could be kept secret by so many people for so long. Over the course of the summer, we watched events unfold in our culture that confirmed to us that yes, unfortunately, it is possible for severe sexual abuse at a very high, consistent level to be kept secret by many, many people, and for institutions to be complicit in it," Yorkey said.
He added the show's team hopes that the conversation around season two reaches out, particularly to young girls, who are dealing with such issues in today and "it's something that needs to change".
Yorkey said the plot of the next season was "very much one(s) that we developed in the late winter" after the first chapter came out.
"... We really started to continue to develop them in the late winter and early spring - and then we sort of watched as the world unfolded. It was really a remarkable experience. I don't think it really led us to change that much, but it did reaffirm for us that these were really important stories to be telling," he said.
Yorkey said "recovery" and "justice" are the other two themes which will be dealt with in season two.
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