When the Hulu drama returns for its second season, Xavier (Sterling K. Brown) is leaving the bunker behind to find his wife. And the show is leaving season 1 behind for something … different. “Our second season was always intended to be a bit of a departure,” showrunner Dan Fogelman says of his three-year plan for the story.
“I keep reminding myself to stick to the plan, because sometimes the plan can be a little scary,” Fogelman continues. “There’s a moment where you go, ‘Wow, people are really enjoying this show in this world and we’re gonna be going to different worlds and different areas. And that’s a scary moment where you check yourself a little bit, but we tried to execute the plan that we always had, the plan that I pitched to Sterling when I first told him what the three seasons were gonna be. And we stuck with that.”
One thing that was always part of the plan? James Marsden’s return. Although his character, Cal Bradford, was killed in season 1, that didn’t stop him from appearing in flashbacks — and it won’t stop him in season 2 either.
“I have had roles for him in mind both in the second and third season as a way that he can play a part in the story,” Fogelman says, noting how his last series provided helpful experience with flashbacks.
“Coming off of This Is Us for so long and knowing how it works when you’re dealing with shows that deal in time and when you have beloved characters in them, there are ways when you have flashbacks where, if it’s not moving the plot forward, it can move somebody’s character forward. And it keeps them in the ether of the show. So that was something that was always on my mind with James. I knew people were gonna love him in it.”
While Marsden serves as a familiar face, season 2 will also bring in some new characters, including Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty. “We have a first episode of the show that is very different,” Fogelman says. “Shailene Woodley really carries the first episode in such an unbelievable way.”
As for Doherty, he’ll come into the fold through Woodley’s character’s story. “He holds a lot of keys and connection to the whole story,” Fogelman teases. “Episode 1 tells the story of Shailene’s character and how basically she survives the apocalypse and he’s a character who initially crosses with her, but he has other roles in the story that develop as the show goes on. He’s mysterious and he’s super romantic. He’s also super complicated and you learn why as the season goes on.”
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Although it’s unclear just how they’ll connect with Xavier, one thing is certain: Xavier’s plane is not looking good. For the former Secret Service agent, Fogelman says the story picks up “just hours” after the season 1 finale. “It’s a bumpy ride,” Fogelman says with a laugh.
So what will Xavier find when he quite literally crashes into the outside world? “When I first pitched the show, I joked that there’s going to be a lot of elements in a post-apocalypse show that have a lot of heart and humanity, like it’s going to be a really delightful apocalypse,” Fogelman says. “That was obviously an exaggeration. You need conflict. But we talk a lot in our writers’ room about the experience of the pandemic and how, amidst all the horror in our neighborhoods, it was a lot of people coming together, and so that’s a place we tend to live more. I think that our apocalypse will feel uniquely ours.”
One thing it certainly won’t have in common with a few other popular post-apocalyptic shows? “There’s definitely no zombies,” Fogelman says. “But it was always the intention for the show to get a little bit more sci-fi as we went along, and the second season starts opening up those doors more.”
That’s not to say that the bunker will be left behind completely. Let’s not forget that Xavier’s kids are in Jane’s (Nicole Brydon Bloom) very dangerous hands. And then there’s the matter of what’s next for mastermind Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson). “In terms of the bunker story, it’s more about a place coming apart at the seams and social uprising and all that comes with it,” Fogelman says.
So, another bumpy ride.
The season as a whole, however, is one that Fogelman hopes is less bumpy. “I think the show is both different in the second season, but also the same because a lot of the same feeling is there, hopefully,” he says.
“It was interesting with this particular show because this is a show built on a lot of mysteries, almost all of which were solved by the end of the first season,” Fogelman continues. “Multiple characters who existed in the first season of the show who people really responded to are dead. And so the very nature of the show doesn’t allow you to repeat the first season. And now the looming questions are different: What is it out there? Is Xavier’s wife alive? These are questions that really weren’t the primary questions driving the first season of the show, but now are the primary questions driving the second.”
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