Production on the second season of Hulu’s breakthrough apocalyptic political drama Paradise is underway, with just two weeks left. However, creator Dan Fogelman and Emmy-nominated star and executive producer Sterling K. Brown took time away from the set to stop in for San Diego Comic-Con on Saturday (July 26).
The duo spoke to a select group of press about what to expect from Paradise Season 2, and while they couldn’t divulge too many details, the duo lifted the veil on what to expect.
For example, Season 1 was split between two timelines, revealing the course of events that transpired before and after a catastrophic disaster essentially ended the world. Season 2, Fogelman told TV Insider, will have a similar two-dimensional track; this time, it’ll be between what’s happening inside and outside of the dome, as Xavier Collins (Brown) ventures outside to find his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), and those still living in the community react to the jarring events of the finale, when the president’s assassin died by throwing himself through the roof of the dome.
“We split the difference in Season 1. There was a lot of going back and forth between the present day and the bunker in the past couple of years or couple years earlier, before the world had basically ended. This year, we kind of have two different present-day storylines going where Sterling is on this mission to find out what where his wife may be and if she’s alive, and then also, what are the ramifications of him having left and all the things that happened at the end of the bunker?” Fogelman explained. “So we spend a lot of time split between the two, and rather than it just getting disjointed when we’re in one timeline, that’s when we tend to use the past stories of those characters, as opposed to just constantly doing a back and forth in the same episodes. But eventually, storylines collide and it all comes together.”
Brown teased that for his part, the journey to finding his wife will be twofold as well, as there’s still a question about whether Samantha Redmond a.k.a. Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) was lying about the survivors outside of Atlanta or whether her audio recording of Teri’s voice was faked.
“I love my wife in real life, so I’m very curious to see [his journey]. He’s a man on a mission: Is Teri alive? Will he find her? It feels like a very easy thing to pursue, like a dog with a bone. So I’m very curious to see if she is alive. Was Sinatra sort of like playing me as a fool? A lot of people, when they heard the video recordings, are like, ‘You can’t trust that chick!’” Brown explained, shaking his head. “And you’re right, you cannot trust that chick, but the idea that she could possibly be alive is enough of a spur in my side to be like, ‘I have to go and find my woman.’ So that’s probably the biggest inspiration on just a character journey.”
Xavier’s next experience will also be about giving a window to audiences to explore what remains after the world ended. As Brown said, “What does the world look like? These people have been in a bunker for the past three years, thinking that the rest of the world was uninhabitable, and then they find out that, ‘Oh god, there’s life.’ What does it look like? How nefarious is it? How benign is it?”
When asked about the pressure to find a standalone episode that might measure up to those that audiences have responded to the most — in particular, the mesmerizing and tragic Episode 7, “The Day” — Fogelman said he feels confident they’ve already got something in the can.
“You don’t want to be a show that gets weaker in your second season. You want to get stronger. I think our first episode back sits really firmly on the shelf next to the best episodes of the show we’ve done so far. So that’s really exciting. I’ve already finished it, and I feel really confident in it.”
As for whether any future flashback episodes will include the return of James Marsden as the slain President Cal Bradford, Fogelman kept coy. “I can’t tell you,” he said with a grin. “I’m not supposed to talk about anything for reasons I don’t understand.”
Paradise, Season 2, TBA, Hulu