'Paradise' Season 2: Everything We Know

If you're a devoted TV fan, odds are you spent the beginning of 2025 telling everyone you know to watch Paradise. The Hulu series starring Sterling K. Brown premiered on January 26, 2025, presenting as a political thriller following a Secret Service agent as he investigated the mysterious death of the president (played by James Marsden). Paradise quickly became a word-of-mouth hit, based on the mind-blowing episode 1 plot twist about the true nature of the idyllic small town where the show is based.

The Paradise season 1 finale arrived on Hulu on March 4, revealing who killed President Cal Bradford and charting a course for the series to follow in its second season. If you, like me, are clamoring for any news of what could happen, read on for everything we know about Paradise season 2 so far.

Has 'Paradise' been renewed for season 2?

Yes! Hulu announced Paradise was renewed for season 2 on February 20, 2025, several episodes into the smash-hit first season, as reported by Deadline. Creator Dan Fogelman reacted to the news on X (formerly Twitter) by writing, "Congrats to this fantastic team and thank you to all those watching and theorizing!"

The renewal means that Paradise is on track for Fogelman's original plan for the show as a "three-season series, eight episodes each," according to Variety.

When will 'Paradise' season 2 be released?

While we may live in a world where it's now normal to wait two years for a beloved show to return, Paradise is expected to be back much sooner. According to Variety, Fogelman assembled a writers' room and started work on the season 2 scripts in January 2025, long before the series became a hit.

Even better news: In a post-finale interview with Deadline, Fogelman confirmed that he's planning for Paradise to return as soon as possible.

"Scripts are written. We go into production in four weeks," he told the outlet. "I’m becoming increasingly frustrated with shows that are off the air for a very long time in which people get invested in and then it takes a long time to get it back on television. We’re ready to go right now and hoping to get this show back on TV in a normal span of time, hopefully the same time as it came out this past year as opposed to waiting multiple years. So if we came out in early 2025, hopefully the next season’s out by early 2026."

Who in the 'Paradise' cast will return for season 2?

Based on season 1's body count, all of Paradise's remaining main cast is expected to return for the second season. This includes Sterling K. Brown (Xavier Collins), Julianne Nicholson (Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond), Sarah Shahi (Dr. Gabriela Torabi), Nicole Brydon Bloom (Jane), Krys Marshall (Nicole Robinson), Aliyah Mastin, (Presley Collins), Percy Daggs IV (James Collins), and Charlie Evans (Jeremy Bradford). Odds are that James Marsden will also reprise his role as the late President Cal Bradford, via flashbacks.

However, it's unclear how much we'll see of the show's cast in season 2. Back in January, Fogelman told Variety that his plan for Paradise is similar to a show like HBO's The Wire, which was set in one city but "featured new dimensions of the city each season, with new characters that interacted with a stable of recurring players." Based on Paradise's season finale, Sterling K. Brown may interact with many new characters in season 2.

What will 'Paradise' season 2 be about?

Spoilers for the Paradise finale ahead. After Paradise season 1 ends with Xavier venturing outside of the bunker to find his wife Teri (Enuka Okuma), season 2 is set to follow two main storylines. In a Hollywood Reporter interview, Fogelman confirmed that the forthcoming season will begin right where the finale leaves off, and split its time between Xavier and the Bunker City residents.

"We’re going to live in both worlds," the creator told the outlet. "There is going to be a little bit of a start where we go on a journey with Xavier. A very exciting, emotional, big journey, and then we will also be living in our downstairs world of the bunker, and forces will eventually be colliding. That’s basically the plan."

The This Is Us creator also teased that Paradise isn't done with its monumental, genre-shifting twists, as it heads into season 2.

"We have a really giant three-season story coming that’s bigger than what people think it is right now, and it’s going to span a couple of genres," he said. "The show was set up and sold as a political thriller about solving the murder of an assassinated president, and by the end of the first episode, you saw that it was something else and it went into a different genre."

"The second season is going to do the same thing to the first season. It expands upon itself," he continued. "We have a plan and, hopefully, by the end of all three seasons, people will feel like they’ve been served a complete meal and that it’s all one piece, even though they went through a lot of different journeys to get to the end."