'Normal People season two is coming and I don't want it.'

I never thought I'd say this but Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal are teasing something big and in an unexpected turn of events, I don't want it. 

As someone who has been a fan of these two stellar actors for years, I thought anything they'd post together—romantic relationship or new film project—would be the biggest pop culture gift I could ever receive. 

How wrong I was. 

The internet is going wild this morning about Edgar-Jones posting an Instagram story of herself and Mescal. Other than the fact it's the cutest photo I've laid eyes on all year, it read, "We've got some news to share!! Watch this space."

Immediately headlines ran that Normal People season two is on the cards.

Image: Instagram

Making this inference even stronger was that the Irish production company behind Normal People, Element Pictures, reposted the snap. 

Of course, the series was such a good adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel by the same name that there has been interest in a second season for a long time. 

The buzz got so loud that showrunner Lenny Abrahamson told Deadline, "I have a sneaking thing in the back of my head that if everybody was willing, and if the stars aligned, I'd love to revisit them in five years and find out what happened, where they are. 

"Is somebody a father or a mother? What relationship are they in that then gets disrupted by their meeting again?"

Naturally, fans went wild at the thought of even a moment more with Connell and Marianne.

it could be anything from Normal People Season 2 to wedding announcement what should i expect??!! https://t.co/lPyn7FpuMJ pic.twitter.com/Rq9n2wSi8M

— Dids, ✨ (@didsreads) May 29, 2024

PLEASE GOD LET THERE BE A NORMAL PEOPLE SEASON 2

— saira (@nsairaa) May 29, 2024

You don’t understand how insufferable i’m gonna be if we get a season 2 of Normal People

— kate🩶 giuls day🤍🎈 (@mescalquinn) May 29, 2024

However, I soon realised that I won't be watching this space, as Mescal and Edgar-Jones asked. I'll be closing my eyes.

You see, Normal People is one of my favourite novels of all time. The nuanced romance, the private longing, the slow burn... it is a complete masterpiece. 

I thought no one could do the novel justice in an adaptation, but then Element Pictures' 12 episode season came out, and the perfection that is Paul Mescal's Connell Waldron and Daisy Edgar-Jones' Marianne Sheridan lit up my screen. I knew they'd got it right. 

But, the literary-inclined know, lightning rarely strikes twice. With the existing series already covering the original source material and no second book (that we know of), showrunners will be forced to go off-piste and create a new ending. 

If they intend to do such an unhinged thing I beg that they at least involve Sally Rooney in the scriptwriting. 

Of course, it's not the first adaptation to put out a new series that extends the original source material. 

The immensely successful Game Of Thrones went far further than the written novels, with George RR. Martin still writing his sixth book Winds of Winter. 

While the series was undoubtedly a brilliant watch, book lovers know that it probably wasn't what Martin would have wished. 

In fact, he told The New York Times that, "By season five and six, and certainly seven and eight, I was pretty much out of the loop". 

The Handmaid's Tale is another series that has departed from Margaret Attwood's original novel by the same name. 

"I have influence but no power," she told The Times. "There's a big difference. I'm not the person who can ultimately sign off on anything.

"I've done some yelling, but it was fairly effective yelling."

All I ask is that showrunners of a Normal People season two do not make the softly-spoken, Irish lilting, genius that is Sally Rooney yell. 

In a dream world, there is a second Normal People book that Rooney has been sitting on since it was first released in April 2020, providing new source material for showrunners directly from her pen. 

However, it would seem strange to tease a new television series without the novel even being on shelves yet. 

There's one more issue I take with the idea of a second Normal People season. 

It's sure to check in on Connell and Marianne later in their lives—as Lenny Abrahamson suggested—but I'm not sure my fragile heart can take more mis-communicated requests, childhood trauma and self-destructive behaviour. 

A second plot will surely draw Connell and Marianne apart and then back together again (just look at all the Bridget Jones movies), and I honestly may not survive it.

In a nutshell, I am concerned that a second series could ruin the nuanced, tortured, hopefulness that is Normal People. 

Even though I, too, so desperately want just another minute of Connell and Marianne's time.

Feature image: Hulu