The Big Little Lies appear to be getting even bigger in season two.
The whole main cast, including Meryl Streep, joined EP David E. Kelley at the HBO portion of the TV Critics’ Association winter press tour to share just a few tidbits about what to expect when the show returns in June.
They didn’t get very specific, but the season picks up right where season two left off, with the women coming together on the beach while they all shared this deep dark secret about how Perry (Alexander Skarsgård) really died. In case you forgot, Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) pushed him down the stairs after she saw him trying to hurt Celeste (Nicole Kidman), and after all the women realized he was also Jane’s (Shailene Woodley) rapist.
Now, they’re all staying silent about who actually did it, but there are certainly still people trying to figure out the truth, including Streep’s character.
Season two will not only follow the unraveling of that lie, but it’s also about all of these women dealing with what comes next after the trauma they’ve suffered and the decisions they’ve made.
Scroll on down for everything we know so far about the new season.
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The Aftermath
Season two picks up right where season one left off, with the women coming together on the beach, and is very much about the aftermath of everything that happened in the first season—the aftermath of abuse for Celeste, especially when the partner is dead, the aftermath of telling that lie about how Perry died, the aftermath of Jane’s rapist finally being gone. It’s about how people deal with trauma after the fact.
“When we come back, their lives, like all of our lives, seem very well put together on the surface but then the fissures and the fractures being to emerge,” EP David E. Kelley said. “Once the crevices start to widen, it escalates pretty quickly.”
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Season 2 Goes Deeper
Kelley says the second season doesn’t so much broaden the world of the show but it deepens it to learn how the lie about Perry is going to “permeate the world of Monterey.”
Kidman says we shouldn’t compare season one to season two.
“It is its own entity and hopefully it will be taken that way,” she said. “It was definitely made with an enormous amount of love.”
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No Greek Chorus
Season one featured various other Monterey residents offering their observations about what was going on, but Kelley says that through season one, it felt as if that element needed to go away. It’s no longer present in season two, which “changes the tone of it,” though there’s still a mix of comedy and drama.
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Meryl. Streep.
Streep plays Mary Louise, the mother of the deceased Perry, and she’s looking for answers.
“I’m playing someone who is dealing with whatever the defecits of her parenting were, whatever the mysteries and how you can’t go back in time and fix something, all those issues,” she explained. “That was interesting to me.”
While it may sound like her relationship with Celeste could be tricky, she said of their mother/daughter in law bond,” I do love her, and that’s the truth.”
Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/courtesy of HBO
The New Director
Andrea Arnold will direct all seven episodes. Oh yeah, the season will be seven episodes. Arnold won an Oscar for Best Short Film, Live Action in 2005 for Wasp. She’s helmed episodes of I Love Dick and Transparent, in addition to Wuthering Heights.
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Same Writer
David E. Kelley wrote all the scripts for the new season. Kelley, who was nominated for an Emmy for writing Big Little Lies season one and won one as executive producer on the then-limited series, wrote the new season from a novella done by Big Little Lies book scribe Liane Moriarty.
“We went to Liane [Moriarty, author of the original novel] and asked, ‘Do you see any more life in these characters? You wrote the book — do you see them having life beyond what you wrote?’ She came up with a novella, which was key. David took it and thought, ‘Is there something I can do with it?’ Reese and Nicole were involved, and they felt that there was more life in the characters. Everybody approached it from a place of love and care [for] these characters and this property, and again, with a little dose of skepticism along the way,” HBO’s president of programming, Carter Ploys, told Vulture.
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Paul Drinkwater/NBC
Same Cast
Everyone is back, including Zoe Kravitz, Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley and Adam Scott, except for Alexander Skarsgard, at least in any regular capacity. Since he’s dead, and all.
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New Characters
There are new characters coming to create drama for the returning characters. According to Vulture, HBO is seeking actors to take on new roles including Michael Perkins, a new teacher at Otter Bay Elementary School who pisses off Renata (Dern) when his global warming lessons give Amabella a panic attack. Then there’s a new employee at the school who befriends Jane (Woodley), with the two eventually sharing secrets. Also expect to meet Bonnie’s (Kravitz) parents as we get to know Bonnie and her reaction to what happened at the end of season one.
Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/courtesy of HBO
The New Story
As for the plot, aside from the bits and pieces we’ve heard about Bonnie and new characters, this is how HBO describes the new season: “The subversive, darkly comedic drama Big Little Lies will explore the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode…the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom.”
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Renata Has Friends
Laura Dern said it’s “thrilling for Renata to have any friends,” since she’s now a part of the group instead of being such an outsider.
“It’s really cute that Dern’s character has girlfriends,” Witherspoon said. “All she wants to do is drink wine.”
Big Little Lies returns to HBO in June.