The suspenseful and electrifying show Homecoming is back with a second season starring Janelle Monáe (Moonlight, Hidden Figures) as the lead. The thriller series drops on Amazon this Friday with seven new episodes, according to Entertainment Weekly. Monáe has an extensive performance history both in the film and music industry and continued to capitalize on her talents by taking on the role of Jackie in Homecoming.
Monáe is a jack of all trades: she shot her role in Homecoming last fall after completing an international concert tour and filming a lead role in the horror film Antebellum. “I took a lot more risks. I’m the type of artist where I need to see a few takes of work, because that actually helps enhance the work that I do,” she says, according to Entertainment Weekly. Monáe continues to describe the work itself saying, “The material itself, it’s just doing something that I feel like is unique in the television space, from the music to the way the cameras operate. I feel like it cut through differently and doesn’t feel reminiscent of anything on TV.”
The trailer reveals some insight into Monáe’s character. She plays a young woman who wakes up alone in a rowboat with her memory wiped. Her character has some connection to the Geist Group, a corporation that operates the Homecoming facility, but is unaware of how she ties in. The series follows her character on her road of self-discovery as she delves deeper into the mystery behind her amnesia.
Check out the trailer below:
The second season carries over characters from the first season, but there are definitely some significant changes in the cast and crew. Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman) is not returning to her role of Heidi Bergman in the next season, but still remains as an executive producer of the show. Similarly, Sam Esmail (Mr. Robert) is no longer directing the episodes, though he is also still an executive producer of the show. There are also some characters introduced for the first time: Jackie (played by Monáe), CEO Leonard Geist (played by Little Woman‘s Chris Cooper), and Department of Defense official Francine Bunda (played by Shameless‘s Joan Cusack).
Season two also differs from season one in its genre or general function. At its core, Homecoming‘s first season was a conspiracy thriller about the disclosure of government concealment concerning of treatment of soldiers. The second season continues where the previous season left off, where viewers already know the conspiracy at hand and are introduced to Jackie and how she is linked to old characters. Rather than solely a conspiracy-based thriller, season two likely has a more psychological take. The change narrative direction is deliberate; as reported by The New York Times, creator and showrunner Micah Bloomberg (All Is Lost) furthers, “We didn’t want to repeat the same tricks of season 1…we wanted each season to come to a satisfying conclusion and then leave a trap door into the new one.”
Photo Credit Raymond Flotat