Sterling K. Brown knows his character Xavier has way less screen time at the beginning of Paradise season 2 — but there’s a reason for that.
“There were a lot of conversations about it,” Brown, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly about the show’s Monday, February 23, premiere. “Do we invert [episode] 1 and 2? Do we start with him coming out of the bunker or do we start with the world outside of the bunker?”
The actor called the change a “nice twist” for the audience.
“Because I think [creator] Dan Fogelman has gained enough credibility and capital with his audience to know when to introduce people and you don’t know who they are — but eventually they’re going to become a fabric of the show,” Brown noted. “Seeing the plane land or him crashing at the very end [of the premiere] was a nice little surprise.”
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He continued: “So you’re always hoping that — we don’t want to lose [the audience]. But the first episode is so strong. Shailene holds that s*** down so fiercely that I was like, ‘We are going to be all right. We can wait for a little bit.’”
The first episode of season 2 introduced Us to Woodley’s character Annie. When the doomsday event began, Annie was a tour guide at Graceland and she survived by hiding in the basement. She briefly was joined by another employee who died from injuries sustained from a fall.
A time jump showed Annie meeting Thomas Doherty‘s Link, who quickly became her love interest. Their short-lived romance ended with the couple having sex but Link having to leave for a mission to find a bunker in Colorado — and Annie being too scared to join him.
In the final moments of the episode, Annie was seen waiting for Link and she was visibly pregnant. She later encountered Xavier on her journey to find Link, which allowed the characters’ story lines to cross over.
“You got to go bigger [in this episode] because I feel like the show simultaneously gets bigger and more intimate at the same time. Because a lot of the things that happen in the outside world, we’re not showing a Mad Max situation,” Brown noted. “What we’re showing is the human dynamics that are created under this crucible. Because everybody is sort of in their own little bubbles. Everybody is coming out of their own bubbles and figuring out how to make it. It’s really interesting to compare and contrast. It doesn’t work if you don’t come out with that in episode 1.”
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Looking ahead, Brown couldn’t tease much of what else is to come. Viewers know Xavier is on a journey to track down his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), who has appeared in flashbacks but not the current timeline. The bunker, meanwhile, is going through unrest as people revolt against the current rules and chain of command.
Brown, who is also an executive producer on the show, reflected on holding onto so many secrets about the show.
“I like knowing [what will happen on my projects]. But I feel like it’s a question you only ask in TV. Because if you’re doing a film or play, you know the beginning, the middle and the end,” he noted to Us. “The idea that you don’t have to know or have it spoiled for you … it is also like I get a chance to help craft the arc of where it ultimately goes to. So I don’t mind knowing.”
New episodes of Paradise air Mondays on Hulu.
