Disney drops huge hint Rivals season 2 is on the way

Rivals could be getting a second season, Disney has heavily hinted.

The Disney Plus adaptation of Jilly Cooper's famous novel, starring David Tennant , Aidan Turner, Alex Hassell, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer , has been a huge hit for the streamer.

It's become the talked-about show, following an eccentric "country set" of characters in the fictional UK county of Rutshire. The Rivals finale ended on a huge cliffhanger. People unfamiliar with the book might not know that the series has finished halfway through the novel, which opens up the possibility of Rivals season 2.

Now, Liam Keelan, Disney's senior vice-president of original content for Europe and Africa, has told The Times that thoughts are turning towards a second series.

"You'd have to be living in a cave not to have come across Rivals ," he says. "Everyone's talking about it. I've seriously never known anything like it. But it's been on the platform for just over a week, so give us a chance, but hopefully more news to come. Suffice to say, we love the show."

Jilly Cooper, who makes a brief cameo in the series, is no doubt delighted by its success. She has described the adaptation as being "heavenly". As well as getting a Rivals season 2, it would seem likely that Disney will now be keen to make further adaptations of Cooper's work. There are 11 books in the Rutshire Chronicles series, with "Rivals" being the second book. The next book in the series is "Polo", with the latest, "Tackle", published in 2023.

We described Rivals as the best adaptation of a book on TV ever and the show seems to have perfectly captured the 1980s world it's set in.

There are key differences of course, as our reviewer noted: "Alex Hassell does not look how Rupert Campbell-Black is described in the books — he's not blond for a start. Danny Dyer does not have Freddie Jones's ginger curls and freckles. David Tennant looks much less like a mafia boss than Tony Baddingham is supposed to.

"But each one of them has captured the spirit of their character so precisely that it doesn't matter."

Rivals is available on Disney Plus now.