If you liked Netflix’s Orange is the New Black Season 1, it sounds like you’re really going to enjoy Season 2, if recent comments from the cast are any indication. Things are being taken up a notch, according to star Taylor Schilling, for example, who discussed working on the show in a nearly half-hour interview with The Huffington Post.

When asked what we can expect in the second season, Schilling says, “I think all of the characters and all the dynamics are just going deeper. Everybody is getting…it’s just getting fuller and richer, and to me, more compelling because we kind of know these women more, so we can dive more deeply into who they are.”

This somewhat mirrors comments made by other cast members. Danielle Brooks, who plays Taystee, and was recently promoted to series regular, said the writing on this season has gotten better.

“It’s really good,” she told E! News. “I think people are going to be so excited about season 2.”

We can certainly expect to see more of certain characters than we saw in Season 1. In addition to Brooks, actresses Uzo Aduba (Crazy Eyes) and Taryn Manning (Pennsatucky) have also been promoted to series regulars. Naturally, the promotion should equate to more screen time for these actresses, which means more character development.

It appears that Laura Prepon (Alex) will be leaving the show after a limited number of episodes. She was a major part of the first season, so her absence should free up plenty of time for other characters.

The events that occurred at the end of the first season will become a “ginormous” plot point in the second season, according to Manning, who recently spoke with Entertainment Tonight about her own character’s coming development:

”I think she’s ignorant in the sense that she didn’t go to school and made poor choices, but I think if she had, her brain is the type of brain that would have soaked up school. So when she calls her that, it’s totally jealousy. I think that’s where we’re going this season. Tiffany doesn’t necessarily think she sh*t doesn’t stink any more. She’s like, ‘I guess I’m not as tough as I thought because she kicked my ass.’”

Manning says she wants to keep the character “out there,” and “dive into her left brain.”

A couple other bits we’ve obtained from cast interviews: Dayanara Diaz may or may not be pregnant and Red apparently has plans to make sure nobody ever “taints her gravy” again.

“You will find out everything in the second season,” she told LA Weekly.

Season 2 does not have an official release date yet, but is due out in 2014. Production began last month.

Image: Netflix (YouTube)