13 Reasons Why season two released date confirmed with eerie first trailer

The tapes were "just the beginning": Netflix's 13 Reasons Why season two finally has a release date and a trailer that hints at the drama to come.

Season two of the controversial teen drama has been announced for Friday 18th May 2018 after a huge build-up, with fans left on tenterhooks by a live-stream showing two Polaroid photos ("the truth is developing").

And when the mysterious trailer dropped, it showed exactly what Netflix was talking about.

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Each character is frozen in the middle of a storm of Polaroids suspended in mid-air as the camera pans around to reveal what is really going on in each snap. Each photograph is a window into something else, another secret.

Finally the camera arrives at Clay (Dylan Minnette), who snaps out of the trance as the Polaroids fall away. He is left with one image, lying on the floor – and it's a photograph of Hannah (Katherine Langsford), the high-school student whose suicide was at the centre of season one. She left behind a series of 13 cassette tapes explaining what led her to take her own life.

But that wasn't the end of the story. On that back of the Polaroid Clay finds the message: "The tapes were just the beginning".

What's the song in the 13 Reasons Why season two trailer?

The music is from Depeche Mode's 1993 single I Feel You, a suitably retro choice for the teen series. The music in season one was one of the surprise high points of the series, and it looks like they're taking just as much care with the new episodes.

The first season of 13 Reasons Why was based on Jay Asher's young adult book of the same name and arrived on Netflix in March 2017. It quickly attracted a huge following, but there were also concerns about the way it depicted suicide – and the potential effect on its teen audience.

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The Netflix series now takes us in a new direction, away from the events of the original novel.

While the first season focused on the plot of the book and the 13 cassette tapes Hannah left for Clay to explain her suicide, season two will continue the story in the aftermath as the other characters start their journeys towards healing and recovering. We'll also see Hannah's parents file a lawsuit against Liberty High School.

But – as revealed in the trailer – a series of ominous Polaroids will lead Clay and his classmates to uncover a "sickening secret and a conspiracy to cover it up".

13 Reasons Why season 2 will premiere on 18th May 2018

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