The Idol Cast Plans To Return For Season 2 After A Table-Turning Finale

The Idol’s fall from grace began long before HBO premiered Season 1 on June 4. Months earlier, a Rolling Stone report cited thirteen sources who claimed the production went “off the rails” amid a showrunner’s exit, rewrites, and reshoots. One unnamed insider described the series, which follows fictional pop star Jocelyn’s (Lily-Rose Depp) dark road to a career comeback, as “twisted torture porn.” Co-creators Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye, who also plays Tedros, refuted the report, but viewers and critics alike largely panned the drama as soon as the first episode dropped.

In fact, Page Six reported on June 15 that Tesfaye was not moving forward with The Idol Season 2 —amid published accounts of his so-called “egomaniacal” behavior on set — after just two episodes. (Jocelyn’s onscreen home is actually Tesfaye’s real-life Bel-Air mansion.) However, HBO’s PR team denied the report later the same day, tweeting, “It is being misreported that a decision on a second season of The Idol has been determined. It has not, and we look forward to sharing the next episode with you Sunday night.”

The chances of a second outing also seemed to plummet when viewers learned that Season 1 was ending “early” with July 2’s Episode 5, despite The Idol’s initial six-episode order. However, the shortened season had nothing to do with the negative response. As Vox pointed out, The Idol was intended to be six episodes in 2021 when Amy Seimetz was at the helm. When Levinson took over the showrunner role, however, the plan changed, and HBO billed The Idol as a five-part series when it debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays Jocelyn’s manager Destiny, also referred to the season as being five episodes in a June interview with Vulture, in which she also confirmed that Season 2 is still a distinct possibility. “I see Season 1 as setting up the world in great detail and character development, to set up a Season 2 where it’s like, now we’re really going to get in the sh*t,” she said. “It’s everyone’s desire and intention to do a Season 2, and until we hear differently, that’s the plan.”

Prior to the season finale airing on July 2, Randolph also teased that there is more to come. “Everything hasn’t been revealed. A lot of subtleties have been put into place that if people go back once it ends and rewatch it, there have been many Easter eggs and some stuff put in there that sets things up for Season 2,” she explained to Variety in a separate interview published on June 29. “... I think it will be very interesting to see how people respond to this last episode and see how things turn. It’s going to show you something different that we haven’t seen in a while.”

Don’t expect Tedros to die, though. Randolph seemed to shoot down the Variety interviewer’s theory that Jocelyn kills The Weeknd’s character in The Idol’s finale. “It’s not 100% right, because it is definitely open where there could be a Season 2 and have the Tedros character be in it,” she responded.

The HBO drama’s inaugural season’s cast also includes: Rachel Sennott (Leia), Troye Sivan (Xander), Jennie Ruby Jane (Dyanne), Dan Levy (Benjamin), Hank Azaria (Chaim), Jane Adams (Nikki), Hari Neff (Talia), Moses Sumney (Izaak), Suzanna Son (Chloe), and Eli Roth (Andrew Finkelstein), among others.

In the same article, Randolph, again, confirmed that “everyone’s intention is to have a second season” of The Idol. “This was never intended to be a limited series. HBO has been very happy with it,” reiterated the actor, who joined the cast after Levinson took over as showrunner and reportedly scrapped Seimetz’s nearly completed episodes. “There will be a turning the table, and I think a really exciting setup of entering into Season 2 because I think a lot of Season 1 was to set up the world that not many people know because it’s very complicated.”