The following contains major spoilers for The Secret Society of Second Born Royals. Go watch it on Disney+, then come back to hash out the ending.
Disney+ has had a pretty strong track record so far when it comes to its original movies. While the vast majority haven't necessarily blown anybody away, they've been solid movies, worth watching, that have covered a variety of genres for the wide audience of people that subscribe to Disney+. The newest entry into that field is The Secret Society of Second Born Royals, which is, at its core, a superhero team origin story movie, and you can't really have one of those these days without setting up the option for more stories down the road, and the ending of The Secret Society for Second Born Royals certainly does that.
One thing that Disney+ original movies have not done so far is built in the opportunity for sequels. Most of them have been self-contained stories and while many of them certainly could see additional entries, none is quite so clear about that option as this one. So let's dive into what happens during The Secret Society of Second Born Royals ending and how it could continue the story into the future.
What Is The Secret Society Of Second-Born Royals?
First, a little background for anybody who hasn't seen the movie but ignored the spoiler warning at the top. The movie takes place in a modern world but with some fictional history thrown in. Sam, played by Disney alum Peyton Elizabeth Lee, is the second-born Princess of the nation of Illyria (a fictional place, though one with a historical name). Her mother has been queen regent since the death of her father and brother in a plane crash, but her older sister is just about to come of age and take the throne. Sam is directionless and something of a rule-breaker, which eventually leads to her needing to attend summer school at her elite private school, where a large number of royal families send their kids.
At school, Sam meets four other second born royals, Tuma, Matteo, January, and Roxana. As it turns out, summer school is a setup to induct the four into the Secret Society of Second Born Royals. The five princes and princesses have superpowers, though each has unique abilities, and they've been brought together to train and learn how to use their powers so that they might become full members of the Society which helps keep the world safe in secret.
And as one might expect, with the superhero team origin, comes all the usual stuff one would expect, secrets, betrayals, super villains, and more.
What Happens At The End?
Every superhero needs a supervillain, and The Secret Society of Second Born Royals has that in Prisoner 34, who is, perhaps unsurprisingly, revealed to be Sam's uncle Edmond, the second-born prince who she believed died with her father in a plane crash. It is revealed that her uncle Edmond, a second born, and therefore with powers of his own, actually killed her father in a bid for the throne, and Sam's mother, who runs the Secret Society, had the uncle's death faked and had him locked away. It's suggested at one point that Edmond might not have been working alone, something the audience actually knows to be a fact, but the identity of the co-conspirator is unknown.
That is until January uses her ability, borrowing the powers of others, to take Toma's ability to command people and use it to free Edmond. Then the two enact the final stages of their plan to use a device created by the Society to ensnare all those of royal blood in attendance at Sam's sister's coronation.
Sam enlists the help of her best friend Mike, and the two are able to stop January, who reveals she made a deal with Edmond in order to get his help to kill her slightly-older brother, who January doesn't feel deserves the throne of her homeland. January gets knocked out, and Mike and Sam apparently tie her up. Then the remaining four members of the team, along with Mike, are able to get the device away from Edmond, and actually use it on him, trapping him.
Next, we see the four friends have successfully overcome a Danger Room style challenge together, which they had had trouble with previously, which makes them full-fledged members of the Secret Society of Second Born Royals.
Will We See A Secret Society Of Second-Born Royals 2... Or Possibly A TV Series?
In the final moments of The Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, we see the team being sent off on their first mission together. A bank has been robbed and the team must go recover the money. Not only that, a fingerprint recovered at the scene has confirmed that January was part of the heist crew. It seems that, while Edmond is in custody, January escaped. Apparently, somebody needs to work on their knot-tying skills. Of course, this sets up our brand new superhero team with something every good superhero needs, a nemesis. January has gone full supervillain, and now she'll need to be stopped.
With this finale, (sorry, no post-credits scene) our superhero team is united and they have a villain to go thwart, and so the potential for a sequel is certainly right here. A second movie could literally pick up in the seconds after the first movie ended, taking us to the scene of the bank heist as the heroes try to track down January.
There are no announced plans for a sequel Disney+ movie, but one certainly gets the impression that if the audience shows interest, such a thing could happen. Of course, maybe a new original movie isn't actually the way to go here. The Secret Society of Second Born Royals, unlike most Disney+ original movies, was produced through the Disney Channel side of the company, rather than the theatrical movie studio. It's not that difficult to see this film on The Disney Channel if Disney+ didn't exist, but with that comes another possibility, a follow-up series, rather than more movies.
If we look at this as a TV-movie then it's easy to see the movie as a pilot film meant to set up a series. It's a structure many series have used to make their debut. Certainly, it's still no guarantee such a thing would happen, but it's not hard to see this concept as a series, with our team of heroes foiling new crimes every week, coming across new heroes and villains, as they move toward a confrontation with January, perhaps at the end of Season 1.
If this were a theatrical movie we could look at the box office and guess how likely a sequel would be. Without that, we'll just have to wait and see if The Secret Society of Second Born Royals gets enough interest. There are certainly enough places future stories can take these characters if the audience is willing to go along for the ride.
