Staged Season 2 - What We Know So Far

The British comedy Staged, starring actors David Tennant and Michael Sheen (co-stars on Good Omens) as versions of themselves, is a COVID-19-fueled invention which features, as the BBC One description says, "two bickering actors making a drama out of a crisis. Can their fragile egos survive working from home and virtual Hollywood?" The show is mostly filmed with video-conferencing technology, and its first season has a short, six-episode run of 15- to 20-minute episodes.

The first season gets its lighthearted charm from the casual banter between the two friends, which has a certain meta quality to it and a slight excuse for a plot that focuses on director Simon Evans trying to get the two of them to rehearse a West End play. The actors discuss homeschooling, pandemic art projects, which one ought to get top billing, and other topics in a way that seems unscripted and fun. Here's what we know about a second season, or series (in the U.K.), for this TV project.

The second season of Staged consists of eight episodes, which already aired on BBC One in the U.K. during January 2021. It was also made available on the streaming service iPlayer. In the U.S., the second season will be available on Hulu starting Tuesday, March 16, which is more than two months after its U.K. second-season launch. Like the first series, it was filmed using laptops and tech from the actors' homes.

Because of the delay, fans can find plenty of information on the second season online already, including episode names, descriptions, and reviews, so you're not going to want to do too much Googling if you want to be surprised by what happens next. Just know that the second series had more mixed reviews than the first, with the Independent calling it "stale and indulgent" and "out of step with the national mood." Still, plenty of people liked it, and American fans will be able to judge its quality for themselves soon. 

The cast of Staged mainly consists of David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Simon Evans, and the main women in their lives: Georgia Tennant, David's wife; Anna Lundberg, Michael's girlfriend; and Lucy Eaton, Simon's sister. The second season also features a quick appearance from guest star Whoopi Goldberg and Ben Schwartz as her assistant. 

Like the first season. which featured appearances from Samuel L. Jackson, Judi Dench, and Adrian Lester, the second season will include some high-profile cameos. These will come from Cate Blanchett, Josh Gad, Jim Parsons, Ewan McGregor, Ken Jeong, Simon Pegg, Hugh Bonneville, Michael Palin, Romesh Ranganathan, Nick Frost, Christoph Waltz, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

"In the first series one of the most enjoyable things was being able to do a scene with Dame Judi and with Samuel L. Jackson," Sheen said in an interview on Tennant's official site (via BBC Media Centre). "In this series we have plenty more where that came from and it was an absolute joy — a real thrill! We have some special guests this series who David and I both enjoy the work of. I hope the audience enjoy it half as much as we did and also see that it's not just us who have difficulty with the technical stuff!"

Reviews of the second season say it is even more meta than the first. It's not even a direct continuation of Staged season 1. It actually has David and Michael trying to make more episodes of Staged while also attempting to get themselves cast on a U.S. remake of the show that's being helmed by Simon. So, it actually acknowledges the making of the first season.  

Whoopi Goldberg and Ben Schwartz don't play themselves, unlike the other actors who appear. Goldberg is the American agent trying to bring Staged to the U.S. Meanwhile, the main characters are still stuck at home during the pandemic. The dialogue remains as salty and comic as ever, and Radio Times calls this season "Staged on steroids."

Basically, the show remains committed to showing the confusion and frustration of normality, interrupted. In a BBC media release, Sheen said, "It's been so great to see how much people enjoyed the first series. Seemed like the laughs were much appreciated. It made us really excited about taking it further and going in some surprising and hopefully enjoyable directions this time."