Spoilers for The Brothers Sun below.
A year after winning her Oscar, Michelle Yeoh returns in The Brothers Sun, a Netflix action-comedy series about organized crime, family ties, and a little bit of baking. She stars as Mama Sun, the matriarch of a powerful Taiwanese triad family, whose two sons had very different upbringings. One, Charles, is a killer and the loyal right-hand of his triad boss father; while the other, Bruce, grew up in Los Angeles with a soft spot for improv and no knowledge of the family’s real business. When their dad, Big Sun, gets shot by a mysterious enemy and falls into a coma, Charles flies from Taipei to L.A. to protect his mother and Bruce, but violence finds a way of following them.
The eight-episode season finds them tracking down the enemy behind their father’s assassination attempt, a rebel society called The Boxers, while keeping the family safe from danger. Will their story continue? Here’s what to know about a possible second season.
Has The Brothers Sun been renewed for season 2?
Netflix has not yet announced a renewal, but show creators Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu already seem to have plans to continue the family saga. More on that later.
Who would be in the cast?
We can probably expect to see Michelle Yeoh (Mama Sun), Justin Chien (Charles), Sam Song Li (Bruce Sun), Highdee Kuan (Alexis), Joon Lee (TK), Alice Hewkin (May/June), and Johnny Kou (Big Sun) again.
Given how events unfolded throughout season 1, it appears Jenny Yang (Xing), Madison Hu (Grace), and Jon Xue Zhang (Blood Boots) won’t be returning. There have been no new cast announcements yet.
What would season 2 be about?
At the end of season 1, everyone is choosing their own path. Seeing his brother trapped under their father’s influence, Bruce decides he will kill Big Sun to set their family free of the gangster life. But when he confronts him at the safe house, he shoots him just to maim him, knowing that when Big Sun is admitted to the hospital with a gunshot wound, the police will be required to be there and will eventually arrest him. (A big win for our aspiring district attorney, Alexis.)
But Mama Sun gets her revenge too. After spending her whole life serving her husband, who betrayed her and kept her sister’s death from her, she surprises him at the hospital (she is a nurse, after all), having tampered with his health records. Now he’ll receive regular doses of insulin, which, without diabetes, will only cause his health to deteriorate—drastically, slowly, and painfully.
In the end, Mama Sun seeks the recognition she deserves by choosing to travel home to Taipei to serve as the dragon head. With the leaders of all the other organizations snuffed out or arrested following episode 7’s big shootout, she’ll consolidate and reorganize what’s left of the remaining businesses. Charles chooses to go with her—he’ll revisit his baking ambitions “someday”—and leaves Bruce home in L.A. with a box of churros and his lime green sports car.
But Big Sun isn’t dead yet, so it’s possible that season 2 might see him make his comeback, and plot vengeance on his wife and kids. “The end of the season is a happy moment for the family, but when you’re living as a gangster, you can never truly relax,” Wu and Falchuk told Tudum. “And Big Sun is not an enemy that accepts defeat easily.” As for where else season 2 could go, they added, “The Sun family will struggle to maintain those clearly defined roles. The children want to be adults!”
There’s also a post-credits scene after the finale that sets up another plot line for the next season: The whole case against Big Sun relies on the testimony of Frank Ma, a surviving triad leader. He’ll be hidden away before the trial on Big Sun, but it seems like one of Big Sun’s associates, Yuan, seems intent on finding him.
As for what the cast hopes, Justin Chien told Screen Rant that he’d like to see more of Taipei in a potential second season, and more of Charles’ new life outside of the triad business. “I’d love to see more of Charles attempting to live a normal life because I think there’s something really endearing and kind of funny about this guy trying to bake a cake or trying to do things that we take for granted as regular people,” he said.
This story will be updated.
Watch The Brothers Sun on Netflix
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.