Earlier this month, Netflix gave Sense8 fans a holiday surprise, by announcing the hit series will return later this month with an all-new Christmas Special. This two-hour special is slated to debut Friday, December 23 at 12:01 AM PT around the world, with Sense8 Season 2 debuting Friday, May 5 at 12:01 AM PT with 10 brand new episodes. Today we have the first official trailer for this Christmas Special, along with a special message from series co-creator Lana Wachowski.

The Sense8: A Christmas Special trailer, which comes courtesy of Netflix, shows that the journey continues as these eight singular hearts and minds weave in and out of each other's lives finding deeper connections, learning darker, more desperate secrets about one another and struggling to identify with more than just oneself. Stars Doona Bae, Jamie Clayton, Tina Desai, Tuppence Middleton, Max Riemelt, Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Brian J. Smith all reprise their starring roles from the first season, with Toby Onwumere replacing Aml Ameen. These characters will be faced with new challenges over the holiday season, as seen in this trailer.

In the special video message from Lana Wachowski, the series co-creator reveals that she asked Netflix if she could make a holiday special as the first episode of Season 2. She revealed that the streaming service asked why she wanted to make a holiday special, and she said that, as a child, she always loved holiday specials, and she wanted an opportunity to create her own special for this very unique series. She revealed that people notice things about their families during the holidays, and how they can make people so connected, and yet so alone at the same time.

After this holiday special debuts in just one week, fans will have to wait five more months for Sense8 Season 2. Picking up where season one left off, Capheus, Kala, Lito, Nomi, Riley, Sun, Will and Wolfgang come together both physically and mentally, plunged into the middle of each other's tragedies and triumphs. On the run from Whispers, and forced to question their very identity, it's a matter of survival as the Sensates must find a way to live with, understand and protect one another against all odds.

Ben Cole will come aboard as a Season 2 character named Todd, a new sensate who "longs to be normal, rejecting the gifts he's been born with," although it isn't clear if he will be present in the holiday special or not. It was also reported earlier this year that Lana Wachowski's sibling Lilly Wachowski has stepped away from the day-to-day operations of the show. Lana Wachowski, Grant Hill and J. Michael Straczynski serve as Executive Producers on the series. Take a look at the Sense8 Season 2 trailer, along with the special video message from executive producer and co-creator Lana Wachowski, before this special debuts on the Netflix streaming service.