Sugar season 2 just premiered on Apple TV, but executive producer Simon Kinberg and star Colin Farrell are already looking ahead to the third season, which will include a lot more alien lore than fans have seen so far on the series.
Farrell stars on Sugar as a private detective named John Sugar. Partway through the first season, a major twist unfolds as it’s revealed that he’s actually an alien. This marks a turning point for not just the characters but also the show as a whole since Sugar is now a sci-fi series and not just a typical mystery/crime drama.
In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Tatiana Hullender for Sugar season 2, Kinberg revealed on the red carpet at the L.A. premiere that he’s got “a lot stored away for the future, in terms of what we’d want to explore with the alien part of Sugar’s life.”
Interestingly, Sugar season 2 is “even more human than last season,” despite the alien twist now out in the open. John Sugar finds himself feeling like he’s in an “exotic world” while navigating the dark alleys of Los Angeles.
Simon Kinberg: “We have a lot stored away for the future, in terms of what we’d want to explore with the alien part of Sugar’s life. This season, I would say, is even more human than last season. Sugar finds himself, and the show finds itself, in the most alien, scariest dark alleys of Los Angeles — and that’s enough to make him feel like he’s in an exotic world.”
Farrell echoed Kinberg’s comment that Sugar is a show all about human experiences. John is feeling alone in the second season (particularly in the beginning) because his friends have all gone home, so he’s forced to reckon with this new reality.
“They’re experiences that were foreign to him as somebody who came from a very, very different place, and a very distant place,” he added.
As he deals with all of this, Farrell’s character starts working on another case as a way to calm his mind amid all the chaos. Along the way, various “human experiences and emotions” start catching up with him, on a level that he didn’t have to face in Sugar season 1.
Colin Farrell: “His whole journey seems to be — although it’s still early, in a way, as we’ve done two seasons — compelled by having human experiences. They’re experiences that were foreign to him as somebody who came from a very, very different place, and a very distant place.
“Loneliness is something that he’s really contending seriously with at the start of the [season], and so he goes out to try and get some work on another case, just because he’s out of his mind. He is the only one of his kind, as far as he’s concerned, who’s left behind.”
He may have a strong exterior and can be a dangerous figure, but John strongly and passionately believes that “human beings are fundamentally good.” On the surface, this appears to be at odds with the real world at the moment, according to Farrell, but his character’s empathy carries the day, despite any forces trying to tear that down.
That dichotomy will play a role in Sugar season 2 as John continues to explore what it means to live among human beings. “It’s a lovely device to have this private investigator, who is a sentient being from a distant planet, and to see how he handles these human experiences,” the actor teased.
Colin Farrell: “There’s a bunch of what we call human experiences and emotions that catch up with him this season; ones that he didn’t really have to contend with in the first season. He’s like a big child, in many ways, but he’s also dangerous and can take care of himself. He’s strong, but he’s incredibly empathetic and incredibly passionate about his belief that human beings are fundamentally good, which is a very hard belief to have in this world we share, when you look around and see what’s going on. But he does truly believe that.
“Those waters are interesting waters to swim in, because that belief can get muddied as well. It’s a lovely device to have this private investigator, who is a sentient being from a distant planet, and to see how he handles these human experiences.”
Kirby, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Dennis Boutsikaris, Nate Corddry, Alex Hernandez and James Cromwell all starred with Farrell in Sugar season 1. Farrell has almost an entirely new cast for the second season, including Jin Ha, Tony Dalton, Raymond Lee, Sasha Calle, Laura Donnelly and Shea Whigham. Kirby and Harner are the only other cast members returning with Farrell.
The first season of Sugar received mostly positive reviews from critics and a Certified Fresh score of 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. With a new eight-episode installment having just premiered, Sugar season 2 currently has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
Sugar season 2 streams every Friday on Apple TV.
- Release Date
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April 4, 2024
- Network
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Apple TV
- Showrunner
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Mark Protosevich, Sam Catlin
- Directors
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Fernando Meirelles, Adam Arkin
- Writers
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Mark Protosevich, Donald Joh, Sam Catlin, David Rosen