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[ThisstorycontainsmajorspoilersforEpisode4ofSeason2of[Thisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfromthefourthepisodeofseasontwoofheaven“The Holy Charge.”]
the heaven The writers didn’t do that He wants To kill off Shailene Woodley’s character. But Annie’s death in episode four after being introduced just a week earlier, in the first episode of the three-part release of season two, was something that had to happen in order to tell Xavier’s story.
“We didn’t start out saying, ‘Let’s go kill Annie.'” “A lot of this comes from the question: ‘What does Xavier need to go through?’” executive producer/writer John Hoiberg explains to Hollywood Reporter About the fate of Annie and the impact of her death on the series’ hero Dan Fogelman, played by Sterling K. Brown. Not to mention, killing off Woodley after only a few episodes wasn’t easy. “It was hard for Annie to die, and that’s why we had to do it — as terrible as it sounds,” he says.
Hoberg says they needed an actress who was strong enough so that viewers would believe she could survive the past post-apocalyptic years alone in Graceland, but also someone with a vulnerability, who had the ability to play both of those things at the same time. “Shailene is a rare actor who can do it perfectly,” he says.
Annie dies in childbirth, and her last act is to task Xavier with bringing her daughter to the Paradise hideout and reuniting her with her father, Link (Thomas Doherty). Hoberg says Xavier and Annie had to bond deeply enough for him to be able to continue this mission of caring for her child.
Episode 4 then ends with Xavier, carrying Annie’s newborn child, arriving at the post-apocalyptic place where his wife Terry (Enoka Okuma) is believed to be living, despite previously believing her to be dead. He encounters a man (Cameron Britton) who says that Terry has been his best friend for the past few years, but has recently been kidnapped. So, how will Annie and her baby affect Xavier as he continues his search for Terry?
Hoberg says that when Xavier and Annie previously passed a caravan of strangers, Xavier told Annie that people aren’t as bad as she thinks. “She says, ‘You don’t know what the world is like here.’ He says, ‘I do.’ You can connect with people and connect with them. We needed to test Xavier on this, because it’s one thing to say that and another thing when it comes to life and death,” Hoberg says. He was in a situation where he had to trust others. And by doing this, in Annie’s last minute, he taught her that she could believe in people.
After chatting with Hoberg, Hollywood Reporter I spoke to star and executive producer Brown directly about these first four episodes of the series heaven And what we can expect from Xavier’s journey for season 2. In our conversation below, Brown promises that viewers will eventually get their answers.
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From the beginning, Dan Fogelman was clear about his three-season plan. At what point did the rest of the creative team share your vision for Season 2?[[Note: heaven It has not yet been officially renewed by Hulu for a third season, but Fogelman has pitched the series as a three-season show.]
When he first pitched the show to me, he said he had a three-season show, and he had a rough outline of what the three seasons would be. At the beginning of each season, he gives me the arc of the entire season. So, at the beginning of Season 2, I knew what Season 2 would entail, how it would end and put us into Season 3 – if we were really lucky. So I knew that from the beginning of the season.
Have you visited the writers room for season 2? I imagine there are wild networks on the whiteboards planning all of this.
I visited it several times throughout, but really at the beginning. We finished almost all eight episodes before we started production — certainly the first six or seven episodes, and then there’s a little bit of tinkering at the end.
Each episode in this season is dedicated to a different character’s backstory, while continuing to follow the story in the present day. This season doesn’t start with Xavier, we meet Annie. What did you like about the format of this premiere, where we got Annie’s story before we found out what’s going on with Xavier and how they’ll be connected?
I think Fogelman has built up enough trust with people who know him that he likes to introduce people who have no context that will make us cry, that will somehow fit into the narrative we know. So, if you’re familiar with his style, you’re waiting to see how this person will connect with our larger narrative. So with the three [episodes at launch]you can learn about the outside world, get Xavier out of the bunker, and find out what’s happening in the bunker. I think it was a great way to take you back to what we did last year.
What was it like working with Shailene Woodley on Xavier and Annie’s poignant scenes together, and how did she join the show in Season 2?
My sister rocks. Psychedelic tea. She’s an open person, and by open I mean she’s willing to share herself, willing and ready. I try to do the same thing with myself, and we’ve found ourselves close that way. We got so close, so fast. This makes it easy when you have to do very intimate things on screen so that you already have a foundation of trust and friendship that supports that. I think a lot of actors don’t realize that getting to know your fellow actor is part of the job. But it doesn’t. She asks questions, I ask questions. We both say, “Oh, we started out like this, didn’t we?” It is wonderful and delightful. We both made lifelong friends.
This season also found a way to bring back Cal (James Marsden) and Billy (John Beavers). How important is it for you to bring back these actors and these characters, and will we see them again in Season 3 if you are renewed?
They are fundamental to the fabric of what we have built. Marsden and the Beavers are my mates. The nice thing about Fogelman’s show is that you can die right from the start and never leave the world. So, yes, if there is indeed a third season – I’m not supposed to comment on it – but if there is one, my sincere hope is that these gentlemen will come back.
It’s a hero’s journey that Xavier goes on this season. Now that you’ve got your actor hat on, what are you most excited to dig into when you return for Season 2?
The idea of exploring the unknown. Everything you encounter after living in this bubble for three years. I thought the world was destroyed. What does the world look like? What does humanity look like when it doesn’t have the time or resources to plan something? And searching for his wife also means three years of thinking that his best friend and life partner is gone, so the thought of being able to find her is the only thing that could possibly motivate him to leave his children behind. He has to fight a little bit, he has to make first contact. I think I’m thinking about it Star Trek Terms – Picard is the diplomat while Kirk is the warrior. I was like, “How much Kirk do we need? How much Picard do we need this season?” He gets a chance to explore both sides of diplomacy and aggression.
Do you feel confident that this is a three-season show, or could there be more stories to tell after three seasons?
I think it’s three. The only reason I would show any level of hesitation other than that is not artistically. This will be practical for my crew, and for my desire to see people working as long as possible. Los Angeles is a very expensive city to live in and not have a job. And the ever-changing format of television, from network to streaming, means we offer shorter seasons so we can get subscribers – and it’s not about season length, it’s about new products to get new viewers. It takes a bit of a toll on the crew, the stability of being able to live a life and support a family. So maybe we’ll find out something in the future. Fogelman suggested filming two seasons at once so that people could work for the same amount of time as they had in the past. But technically, I think I’ll be satisfied At the end of the third season.
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heavenNew episodes release every Monday on Hulu and are now streaming the first four episodes of Season 2. Read THR’s first postmortem, Shailene Woodley’s interview — and follow our coverage of the show.
