Creator Chris Coelen Explains How Season 2 Of 'The Ultimatum' Will Be Different

“The Ultimatum” creator Chris Coelen recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about some of the twists and turns of the first season, as well as looking ahead to season 2.

In the Netflix reality dating show, six couples are at a breaking point in their relationship, when one person wants to get married and the other person doesn’t. When they come onto the show, they enter into a “trial marriage” with someone from another couple and spend a few weeks with them before reuniting with their original partner and deciding whether or not to tie the knot.

When asked if the second season will be similar to season two in terms of age and general situation, Chris replied, “No, not at all.” He added, “You want to put groups of people together who have something in common and who would have a genuine interest in one another.”

He pointed out that if you took two 50-year-old people and threw them in a cast of 25-year-old people, “all of a sudden you’re introducing a different dynamic.”

“So if we had a group of cast members who were more mid-30s, which is a really interesting, viable cast, to me it’s less about the ages than the fact that they’re participating in something where there’s going to be some mutual interest,” he added.

The next season will feature exclusively LGBTQ+ couples, which many fans are looking forward to. “We’re already well into season two, and it’s amazing,” Chris explained. “Honestly, it’s so good — stories are so interesting.”

“The cast of participants in season two is a very different set of participants than we saw on season one,” he added. “This is a very big, common question, and a huge milestone for people who are interested in getting married. Just setting up the experience and the stakes of that, and then just allowing them to really go through this in the way that makes sense for them. It turned out to be very different, but equally as great, as season one.”

“First of all, in production, there were so many things that were surprising in terms of people’s relationship status and how they approached The Ultimatum coming in, and who people gravitated toward to have a trial experience with,” he shared.

“The choice, which is in episodes two and three, was really surprising in terms of not only Hunter and Alexis, but Nate and Lauren, and the ensuing fallout from that,” he continued. “That was an incredibly insane night to be a part of. Things go in unpredictable ways, and you follow that, and that’s exciting. We certainly didn’t know who was going to end up with whom. We had feelings, and our feelings were constantly subverted.”

“The fact that Madlyn and Colby ended up the way that they did was a huge surprise,” he added, echoing the reactions of many fans. There were moments throughout that I was like, “Oh, my God, there’s no way these two are going to end up together,” and then to see them not only end up together, but see her pregnant at the reunion, was an incredible surprise.”

“For me, it’s about their real lives,” he added.

He also clarified that “to my knowledge, they [Madlyn and Colby] were not pregnant on the show. There was some misunderstanding – Jake made some comments and got his time-frame wrong. My understanding is they got married, and [then] they went off and got pregnant.”

“Like everyone, I was surprised,” Chris said of Madlyn’s pregnancy. “It’s pretty shocking to see Madlyn, not having seen Madlyn in a while, and then she’s real pregnant. That was a big surprise. But, good for them. I’m super happy for them. They’re thrilled. They’re in love. They are happy to have made the choices that they’ve made, and that makes me happy for them.”

There is no word as to when season 2 of “The Ultimatum” will be released, but fans can stream season 1 exclusively on Netflix.