Will ‘Dear White People’ End After Season 4?
The Netflix TV comedy Dear White People was created as an episodic show based on the indie film of the same name by creator Justin Simien. The show features a group of Black students at the predominately white Winchester University who are speaking out against racism and contending with racially charged situations at this ivy league college.
Let’s take a look at the origins of the movie that spawned the series and if the show will be renewed beyond season 4.
‘Dear White People’ is a hit Netflix series
The show that resulted from the movie of the same name premiered on Netflix in 2017. The first and second seasons have been wildly successful. However, the show garnered some unwanted attention.
Some Twitter users accused the show of being “racist” toward white people and the YouTube trailer for the show received more dislikes than likes at one point.
In the end, the controversy actually served to increase the popularity of the show, which took a unique perspective on storytelling. The show built on what the movie started and fleshed out the characters.
The show devotes entire episodes to the perspectives of different characters, which is an interesting and unique perspective that has not yet been visited in any other episodic show.
Will season 4 be the end?
Season 4 of the show hit Netflix on September 22, 2021. This season will be the last season for the show. This will be the senior year for the students at Winchester University and we will be looking back over the last three seasons. The season is also going to be a musical version of the story.
The Netflix synopsis reads:
“Set against the backdrop of senior year at Winchester as well as a not-so-distant, post-pandemic future, Dear White People Vol. 4 finds our characters looking back at the most formative (and theatrical) year of their lives. Both an Afro-futuristic and ’90s-inspired musical event, Dear White People Vol. 4 is a can’t-miss, farewell experience with one pitch-perfect promise: sometimes the only way to move forward is to throw it back.”
With the show coming to an end, Justin Simien already has plans for the future. Simien is working on a project called Lando, a limited Disney+ series about the character Landonis Balthazar “Lando” Calrissian of the Star Wars franchise.
In April 2021, Simien also signed on to direct a new film adaptation of the Disney theme park attraction The Haunted Mansion. Simien will undoubtedly become a fixture in Hollywood in the coming years due to his unique perspectives on filmmaking and storytelling.
Joining forces with a large franchise like Disney will only serve to solidify his legitimacy. Perhaps there will be additional iterations of Dear White People. But for now, we will have to be content with what we have on Netflix.
The movie that inspired the show
Dear White People‘s first incarnation was that of a movie. The movie’s main character is Samantha White. She has a radio show called Dear White People, she highlights the racial transgressions that happen at the school, much to the chagrin of administrators and students alike.
Sam becomes the head of the house for the all-Black house on campus, and consequently defeats her ex-boyfriend, Troy Fairbanks, who is the son of the school’s dean.
Over the course of the movie, Sam and her friends face many different racial encounters, such as a black-face-themed party which results in a brawl when Black students show up to the party.
