Big Little Lies author open to second season

Australian novelist Liane Moriarty says she’s developing ideas for a second season of hit series Big Little Lies – and it will focus on Bonnie’s untold story and Celeste’s grief.

Moriarty, whose book based around a community on Sydney’s northern beaches was transplanted to Monterey, California for the HBO series, has been buoyed by the show’s success and fan reaction.

Many viewers took to social media to plead for a second season, with actress and producer Reece Witherspoon urging them to tell Moriarty.

“A lot of people have obediently done as Reese suggested,” Moriarty has told Fairfax. “And 99 per cent are saying please do it, but there is a small percentage saying no, don’t do it, it should end there.”

“I have started to think about ways this could continue,” she says. “The producers have asked me to see if I can come up with some ideas. I wouldn’t write a new book but perhaps a new story and then we’ll see what happens.”

Moriarty says she was surprised by the omission of a backstory for Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) by screenwriter David E. Kelley but director and executive producer Jean-Marc Vallee has said it “needed too much explaining” to be reflected in full.

That could leave Moriarty some room for further storylines in a second season.

“I think I might have preferred to have had it in there but I wouldn’t argue against it either. It also leaves open the possibility of season two,” she continues.

“I’m absolutely open to (another season) because, once I started thinking, it was too much fun to see what I could do and to see these characters again. And there’s definitely places you can go.”