1899 season 2: All the questions we *need* an answer for after the Netflix show's intense finale twist

If you’re hoping for an 1899 season 2 you’re probably not alone as the historical mystery took a twisted turn in the finale.

Anyone who avidly binge-watched their way through to the 1899 ending might have found themselves with just as many questions as they received answers. After following the passengers of the ship Kerberos as they encounter what they believe to be the missing ship, Prometheus, and find themselves facing an increasingly dark series of events, a twist that truly changed everything emerged in the finale. 

Sadly an 1899 season 2 has yet to be confirmed though given the Netflix show’s popularity it’s possible it could return. Especially since 1899 creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar told Deadline that they want to make it multi-season but “it depends on the viewers”. Whilst exciting, this could spell an agonizing wait for some much-needed resolutions as fans hope for a sequel. 

Here we reveal all the questions we need an answer for if there’s an 1899 season 2 and why these details are so confusing…

*Warning: Spoilers ahead!*

Is Elliot dead? 

Perhaps one of the darkest questions that remained unanswered after the 1899 ending concerns the fate of Kerberos passenger Maura Franklin and her husband Daniel’s young son Elliot. Discovered by Maura hiding in a cupboard on board what she, the ship's captain and many others believed to be the wrecked Prometheus ship in episode 1, we later discover that the mysterious boy is her son.

But the knowledge that the family were together was tinged with devastation when the final twist revealed that the Kerberos was part of a looped simulation complete with passengers plugged into this matrix-style reality. We learnt that Maura had created the simulation in the first place to preserve Elliot. 

The little boy had been dying of an unspecified illness in the real world, leading his mother to try to keep his mind and essence alive. However, Maura was far from trauma-free in the simulation and had chosen to wipe her own memories. With this drastic action in mind, it’s all too believable to consider the idea of Maura plunging herself into unreality to remain with her simulation son for all time and forget his death in real-life. 

Daniel even reminds Maura that the first simulation they created together was a bunker which is shown to be near a grave outside the asylum owned by her father Henry. 

This could be seen to heavily hint that the grave is that of the real Elliot, however we don’t hear this explicitly from either of his parents.

Ultimately, we would need 1899 season 2 to reveal his fate as it’s left just ambiguous enough to leave us strongly suspecting Elliot has passed away without a definite confirmation that he’s dead in real-life.

Has Maura escaped the simulation?  

Another burning question many fans might have found themselves hoping any potential 1899 will answer is that of Maura’s fate. At the end of the 1899 finale we see the doctor - who, after all, created the simulation - apparently wake up. But did she really? If there’s one thing we’ve learnt throughout 1899 is that nothing is as it seems and to question the reality presented to us constantly. 

Although Maura looks like she’s finally woken up aboard a spaceship in the year 2099, who’s to say that this is any more real than the Kerberos or the Prometheus - two ships in the simulation loop? 

If 1899 season 2 is confirmed, hopefully we will learn whether this is yet another layer of illusion created by Maura’s brother Ciaran or the real-world Daniel and Elliot were desperately trying to get her to return to.

If what we saw is real, that teases a major power battle in any prospective second season as Daniel told Maura that “everything will be lost” if she didn’t wake up and stop Ciaran. Exactly why Ciaran took control of Maura’s simulation (if he genuinely did), is yet another question to be answered but for now he’s set up as a villainous force controlling everything that needs to be prevented from doing more harm. 

But Daniel also told Maura “this is so much bigger than you think”, which could indicate that her new 2099 reality is yet another simulation, either still controlled by Ciaran or somebody else.

He did seem to be mocking his sister with a message displayed on a monitor when she woke up that read, “May your coffee kick in before reality does”. 

This also appeared on one of the books on board the Kerberos, so the presence of it in both could suggest that it’s another simulation. Either way, we need to know!

Where is Project Prometheus going?

Although the Kerberos was revealed to be a spaceship, Project Prometheus, in 2099 in the apparent return to reality at the end, what’s not clear is where it’s going. Set that far in the future, if this is real life then perhaps a 1899 season 2 might explore the reasons for 1,423 passengers traveling through space and being plugged into a simulation on board. It’s possible that there could’ve been some wider disaster which led to this perilous journey with humans fleeing in search of salvation or escaping destruction. 

In some versions of Greek Mythology, Prometheus was credited with the creation of humankind from clay and he defied the gods by stealing fire and giving it to them, opening up a wealth of possibilities for advancement. He was then trapped in a loop for eternity of having his liver pecked out by an eagle each day.

If this choice of name for the project/ship was due to similarities with the mythological figure then it could potentially suggest that the ship’s captain or passengers are creations within another simulation. Hopefully if there is 1899 season 2 the question of whether the 2099 ship is reality would also help shed light on what exactly it’s destination is. 

Why did the simulation take place in 1899? 

From what we know from Daniel and Maura in particular, the simulation could have taken the Kerberos passengers literally anywhere. If we’re taking what we’ve seen at face value either Ciaran set the simulation to be there when he took over or Maura herself must’ve decided the date when she created it in the first place. 

Regardless of which way round it was, though, it’s not been revealed why exactly people who seem to come from 2099 would want the simulation to take place 200 years earlier. Although a lot happened in the 19th century and it’s popular in films and shows with history that The Wonder is based on and The Essex Serpent both set in the 1800s.

This also sparks other questions that need answering as we wonder whether there was a reason it had to be 1899 and whether whatever disaster the spaceship could be fleeing could be traced back there. Alternatively, it could simply be a random choice, but it seems we’ll never know unless the Netflix drama returns.

What was the virus in 1899?

During 1899 a virus was introduced into the simulation which seemed to corrupt a lot of it, but hopefully a 1899 sequel might delve a little deeper into its effects. A virus is apparently part of the loop when it’s nearing the end of a ship’s journey and is harmful if a passenger comes into contact with it. But we don’t know exactly how it came to be in the simulation, what it is and what the consequences might be for a passenger if they touch it and begin the loop again. This is something else that a follow-up season might be able to resolve. 

Who were the other Kerberos passengers in 1899?

All of the passengers on the Kerberos in the simulation had pretty traumatic pasts - many of them involving murder and impersonating someone else. But is this a coincidence? It’s possible that just like Maura seems to have chosen to live in the simulation rather than face a reality without Elliot, they opted for it to avoid sadness in their real lives. 

Maura’s backstory is hinted at even when she can’t remember it, so it could be that the other passengers’ real lives are also linked to their histories in the simulation. That would mean several are murderers which makes the method of deciding who can and can’t plug into the simulation seem even more intriguing. 

We don’t know anything about their real lives for sure unlike Maura, Daniel and Elliot. All Henry and Daniel said was that they apparently chose to be part of the simulation and lose their memories. This leaves room to explore this further in a season 2 if the same characters continue to have significance to the story. 

Did all the passengers lose their memories? 

It appeared that the Kerberos passengers chose to have their memories wiped, just like Maura did and she needed a lot of help from Daniel and Elliot to remember who she was. Though each of them built up new memories in the simulation throughout the ship’s journey that was always fated to end in death and disaster. 

In previous instances like with the missing ship Prometheus and those who came before it in the loop, all the passengers began to act irrationally and ultimately all perished. The Kerberos passengers in 1899 aren’t all dead before the simulation shuts down. 

What remains to be seen is whether the few that survived lost all their memories from the Kerberos before going into another simulation or if they’ve kept them and are now more aware that they’re trapped in some kind of alternative reality.

When Maura wakes up in 2099 she sees some of the “dead” passengers like Eyk the captain plugged in so if this actually is reality then presumably she could help to bring them back to it. If she does, we might finally learn if they remember any of what they’ve been through. 

All episodes of 1899 are available to watch on Netflix.