During the 2025 San Diego Comic Con, there was a panel discussion for Hulu’s PARADISE which included creator, Dan Fogelman and star, Sterling K. Brown.
Season 2 is almost complete filming and even more than half of it already edited. They explain that since they were given the green light during the early releases of season one, the writers went straight to work. The momentum from hearing peoples reception of season one while writing for its second live helped and made things go into schedule like clockwork.
A quick recap of what the show is about and brief warning that there will be spoilers for season one going forward, so if you do not want to know, do not read on.
PARADISE is a show about a Secret Service agent (Brown) who investigates the murder of the President (played by James Marsden) in a dystopian world where the last of humanity is underground. At the end of the season, we learn that despite what we have been told this whole time, everyone else did not die above ground. Several survivors have been trying to make contact, including Brown’s wife who was long believed to have died at the season finale.
During SDCC, the audience was given a sneak preview of a clip for season 2 and introduced Shailene Woodley to the panel. Woodley is playing Andy, a survivor and former tour guide to Graceland. I was not able to view the clip but several articles describe the clip, here is one from the Laughing Place:
Andy leads Graceland tours with charm and humor, shares balcony moments with a security guard looking out toward the river through a telescope, and responds swiftly when disaster looms—sending her friend to gather supplies while she frees the horses from the stables. As tremors shake the ground and the river overflows into city streets, she retreats into Elvis’ basement TV room, transforming a tourist destination into a survival bunker.
It was revealed that other new cast members for season 2 will include, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Timothy Omundson, Thomas Doherty, and Michael McGrady.
Along with the conversation, we learned that the show is entirely filmed in Los Angeles. This was important to the cast and crew because they live there and wanted to be close to home. Fogelman and Brown both have families with young children. They knew more and more shows were being filmed outside of their home city but they didn’t want to be away from their families for long periods of time. They also wanted to bring work back to the city.
Continuing onto the discussion of season two, Elvis will come up more often, musically and thematically. They rebuilt Graceland in their studio in Los Angeles so while Woodley has never been to the real Graceland, she joked that she feels like she owns the place. She binge watched the first season and went to film the second season with just a few days notice. She was drawn the writing and the premise. Fogelman explained that when he started creating the show, he just knew he wanted it to be about a man trying to move forward after a tragedy. It wasn’t originally a science fiction twist or anything else. Having worked with Brown for THIS IS US, he shared it with Brown and the two couldn’t wait to bring this idea to life. About 90% of the crew members from THIS IS US moved with them to work on PARADISE too.
As they continue to finish season two, the panel discussion and the clip they shared promised to make the new season filled with twists and turns but at the heart of it, a story of human persistence. It is sure not to disappoint fans.
