Hulu is heading back to Paradise.
The twisty drama from This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman and starring Sterling K. Brown has been renewed for a second season by the streamer ahead of its season one finale.
Paradise released its sixth of eight episodes this week; the finale releases March 4. Following the finale, Paradise will get a full first season run on ABC beginning starting April 7 at 10 p.m.
Paradise‘s logline places the drama in a serene community inhabited by some of the world’s most prominent individuals, noting that this tranquility explodes when a shocking murder occurs and a high-stakes investigation unfolds. Brown, marking a This Is Us reunion with Fogelman, stars as Agent Xavier Collins.
James Marsden, Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Jon Beavers, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Krys Marshall, Aliyah Mastin, Percy Daggs IV and Enuka Okuma round out the cast.
Paradise was marketed as a political thriller, only to reveal its big twist in the premiere. In his non-spoiler review, THR‘s chief TV critic Dan Feinberg wrote, “From fairly early on, Paradise puts its cards on the table and, from there, isn’t really coy at all.” (Read THR’s spoiler coverage on the premiere and later episodes.)
Fogelman has revealed he has a three-season plan for Paradise that he’s already mapped out. Despite parallels to current events, Fogelman came up with the idea for the series back when he was doing This Is Us. When sharing his master plan with THR at the beginning of the season, he teased a standout seventh episode and most likely twisty finale still ahead.
“I have a plan for three seasons of the show. Without giving away too much, each season of the show is a slightly different show, within the same show with the same characters,” he said. “There’s twists and turns in the course of the season. Then the seventh episode is kind of a standalone episode of the show. As we go into second season, we pivot a little bit, but in a way that I think is very follow-able. But yes, there’s big moves ahead.”
He also promised that the finale will answer the big questions raised so far in season one: “Any question that people have after the first couple of episodes should be answered at the end of the eighth episode. Then a new question and journey will start that takes us into the second season.”
Shahi, who plays psychotherapist Dr. Gabriela Torabi, shared some conversations she’s had surrounding her character for season two in a chat with THR about episode six this week. (Spoilers ahead.)
Paradise launched to 7 million views in its premiere week across Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally, according to the streamer, holding its spot among Hulu’s Top 15 Today list since launch.
Season one of Paradise is executive produced by Fogelman, Brown, John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, John Hoberg, Jess Rosenthal and Steve Beers. The Hulu Original hails from 20th Television.