Is season two of Of Kings & Prophets already in production?

Last year, NBC premiered A.D. The Bible Continues to a great deal of hype, but waited until after the first season had run its course before deciding whether to renew the series for a second season. (In the end, they cancelled it due to low ratings.)

Is ABC feeling more confident about Of Kings and Prophets, which premieres in four weeks? Possibly, if a passing line in a recent Variety article is any indication.

Yesterday the paper ran a story on how the falling value of the rand (the South African unit of currency) has been a boon to the country’s film industry, as more and more foreign productions come into the country looking to get more bang for their buck — and along the way, the article mentions that one of “the foreign projects currently in production” is “season two of ABC’s biblical drama ‘Of Kings and Prophets.'”

“In production” normally means that cameras are actually rolling. So does this mean ABC has already greenlit the second season, even before the series premieres?

Or did the reporter mean to say that the second season was in pre-production, as the writers and producers prepare for a second season in the hope that it gets greenlit?

As ever, we shall see. For now, the first season premieres on ABC on March 8.

February 12 update: Business Day Live has more info on how Of Kings and Prophets fits into the larger picture of South African film and television production — and it clarifies that the cast and crew are still working on season one:

THE film industry had spent R15.2bn in SA since the 2004 introduction of the Department of Trade and Industry’s film incentive programme, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Thursday.

Davies was speaking at the Durbanville set of the largest American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Studios production yet to be filmed in SA. Of Kings and Prophets traces the biblical story of a shepherd called David to become the Israelites’ most famous king. Filming started in February 2015, with the ninth episode of season one nearing completion.

Maybe Variety thought the cast and crew were working on a second season because they shot a second pilot episode, several months after they shot the first one?