When is Anne With an E season two released on Netflix? Who's in the cast, and what's going to happen?

Opinions on the show have so far been split – fans of the original book series have expressed concern over whether the adaptation is straying too far from Montgomery's plot line, while other viewers argue that the show is a bold new update on the original material.

Whether you love or hate it, here's everything you need to know about season two of Anne with a E, including the release date and what's likely to happen.

When is Anne with an E season 2 released on Netflix?

The second season will stream on Netflix on Friday 6th July, with ten episodes in total.

What happened in the first season of Anne with an E?

The first season followed Montgomery's story – familiar to many of us – of an imaginative red-haired orphan with a preference for "romantical" language and puff-sleeved dresses, who comes to live at Green Gables, Avonlea by mistake after siblings Matthew (RH Thomson) and Marilla (Geraldine James) send off for a farm boy and Anne arrives instead.

As in the books, the Cuthberts find themselves warming to the precocious Anne and decide to keep her. However (spoiler alert), the TV adaptation adds a great big dose of angst to this narrative, culminating in a dramatic nighttime gallop across Prince Edward Island and a nailbiting rescue, after Marilla sends Anne away for a crime she soon realises Anne didn't commit (another addition to the plot).

Anne's love for puff sleeves, raspberry cordial and her best friend, the sensible Diana Barry (played by Dalila Bela) remains intact, however, as does her love/hate relationship with charming schoolboy Gilbert Blythe (played by Lucas Jade Zumann).

At the end of the first season, however, it seemed as though the series was further diverging from Montgomery's books: we saw Gilbert's father die unexpectedly, and Gilbert, determined to make his fortune and see the world, set sail aboard a ship bound for the Caribbean.

Meanwhile the Cuthberts seem to be in danger, as when we left them at the end of the first season we saw them unwittingly take in two violent grifters as boarders.

Is there a trailer for the second season?

Yes, you can watch it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7j8pG9UJ4A

Are there any changes to the cast?

There are two major additions that we know of to the cast so far. Canadian actor Dalmar Abuzeid plays Sebastian ("Bash"), a Trinidadian sailor who befriends Gilbert on the ship they're both working on.

Cory Grüter-Andrew meanwhile plays schoolboy Cole, whose sensitive temperament and artistic skills endears him to Anne and the other girls in class.

Anne with an E cast

What's going to happen in Anne with an E season two?

The two violent grifters who beat up the Cuthberts' farmhand Jerry (played by Aymeric Jett Montaz) spell trouble, both for the Cuthberts and potentially the whole of Avonlea. Meanwhile Gilbert is off galavanting and making new friends on the other side of the world – will he return to PE Island (and Anne)?

From the trailer, however, Anne doesn't seem too distressed by his absence. We see her bonding with Cole – who seems to have a proclivity for hairdressing – before chasing down waves on a beach with Marilla and Matthew, and generally having a great time imagining "all the possibilities". As she remarks at the beginning of the trailer: "Isn't the world a wonderful place?"