Anyone who knew of Donald Glover's work had high hopes for Atlanta before it debuted on FX last year. At 22 years old, he began his TV career writing for 30 Rock and followed that with playing the beloved character Troy on Community. And along the way, he gained an internet cult following as the rapper Childish Gambino. Having grown up near Stone Mountain, Georgia, the idea of Glover making a show about a struggling rapper in Atlanta was the absolute amalgam of his many talents. But Glover somehow even exceeded those expectations with the intimate and hilarious Atlanta. Rather than a true comedy series, Atlanta played out like a collection of short stories about struggling with race, parenting, money, success, and culture at large. Glover's Atlanta was the best new show of 2016, winning two Golden Globes (for Best Series, Musical or Comedy, and Best Actor for Glover) and earning six Emmy nominations.
And with that, fans and critics both anxiously await the second season of Atlanta. Here's everything we know so far.
When is Atlanta coming back?
Alright, here's the bad news: Atlanta won't be back until 2018. This isn't because of problems or writers block or anything like that, thankfully—it's just because Glover is so damn busy.The announcement came in early 2017. Glover, who had just released a new album and was prepping some summer shows, decided to step away from the show to play young Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo movie. FX fully supported his decision to step away for a while. During an interview with the BBC in August, Glover said that production on Season Two would begin in September.
"I'm not the type of person to rush anything," he said. "I feel like if you rush it, you'll start to get something you don't want and then you start to question why you even liked it. I'm not gonna make anything until it's ready. But to be completely honest, it's almost ready. I'm pretty happy with a lot of the things, and I think it's better than the first season."
What's it going to be about?
Details are scarce but, in a feature in The Hollywood Reporter, Glover outlined a little bit of what has influenced his writing process. He's recently become a father and he's "now better able to relate to his character" on Atlanta. He also explains, "I don't want to go into Season Two [with the mindset of] 'Enough people liked it so just keep those people,' because then you begin to give your audience a methadone drip of bullshit that keeps them happy as opposed to, 'We did something controversial and more people were interested.'"
He also mentioned that, to get himself in the writing mindset, he watches Planet Earth and animal attacks on the internet. "I just think it's amazing that you can have something that has violence and sex, and you can show it to children and be like, 'Yeah, that's just what it is. And that's what I want to do with this show. Like, 'This is life; it's not us trying to be provocative.' "
