“I just picture this show as something a little bit bigger and wilder and more epic… We’re not calculating what the audience’s final thoughts are about these characters yet,” Danny McBride, who not only stars as Jesse Gemstone, but also serves as the series’ creator, writer and executive producer, toldThrillist following the Season 1 finale. The dark comedy centers on the titular televangelist family, the Gemstones, and their over-the-top personalities and lifestyles. Now, with the second season arriving in January 2022, it’s safe to say there’s mega-drama in store for the megachurch family. “This thing has been such a treat to write, and it probably kept me sane during quarantine,” McBride toldEntertainment Weekly in October 2021. “It was cool to be able to go and really blow this world up and make it bigger, nastier, and crazier.” While we wait to see what big things are in store for the show’s sophomore season, here’s everything we know about The Righteous Gemstones Season 2.
When is The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 coming out?
Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones will debut on HBO with two new episodes on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, starting at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, followed by four half-hour episodes airing at the same time on following Sundays. Like Season 1, the second season will include nine episodes and will also be available to stream on HBO Max.
Is there a The Righteous Gemstones Season 2 trailer?
Hallelujah, there is! More than two years after the series was first renewed, HBO treated fans to a long-awaited first look at what’s next for the Gemstone family in mid-December 2021, with the series’ official Instagram account announcing, “The second coming is coming.” Like Season 1, it appears the second season will be at turns funny and dark. While the trailer opens with the trio of Gemstone siblings—older brother Jesse, sister Judy (EdiPatterson) and younger brother Kelvin (Adam Devine)—at odds over who will someday control their father Eli’s televangelist empire, it seems they’ll also face shared struggles over the course of the nine-episode season. New plotlines seemingly include a snooping investigative reporter, more blackmail and even an assassination attempt on Jesse. Despite the dark themes, however, the trailer also includes the series’ signature absurdity, including one scene of the Gemstones fumbling to shut the doors of one of their many Teslas.
When did production begin on The Righteous Gemstones Season 2?
Season 2 first started shooting in Charleston, S.C. in March 2020, then set shut down just two days later amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Filming finally resumed a year later, as the show’s official Instagram account announced on March 25, 2020, “And God said, ‘Let there be Season 2,’ and there was Season 2 #TheRighteousGemstones is back in production.” According to director and executive producer David Gordon Green, the season finished shooting in October 2021.
How did The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 end?
(Warning: The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 spoilers ahead!) In the Season 1 finale, Amber kicks Jesse out of the house after he fails to reconcile with their eldest son, Gideon. Meanwhile, Judi reconciles with her fiancé BJ—over a blooming onion at Outback Steakhouse, no less. Baby Billy also sees some form of redemption, as he’s struck by lightning but is brought back to life when he’s stung by a bee (seemingly a symbol of his late sister). The episode closes with Jesse joining Gideon in Haiti.
Are there any Righteous Gemstones Season 2 spoilers?
The Season 1 finale seemed to set up a redemptive arc for the family; however, McBride has since told the New York Times, “I think there’s a way for characters to be relatable, and you can sympathize with them, but at the same time root for them to get what’s coming to them.” Although Season 1 didn’t exactly conclude in a cliffhanger, McBride further explained to Entertainment Weekly that the somewhat wrapped-up ending was by design. “That is how our plan is for these seasons,” he explained. “Obviously, you continue the Gemstone story, but I like the idea of each of these seasons standing alone as their own work and story, so that you’re not always baiting the audience with, ‘What’s next?’ There is some level of giving people closure, and then starting again.” While the series was initially supposed to restart with a Christmas special—about what happened in Haiti between Jesse and Gideon—the bridge episode ended up getting shelved amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since we won’t be able to watch what happened in between, McBride said that Season 2 will pick up after “Jesse has convinced his son to come back and things are good in Jesse’s family.” McBride has also said that first episode of Season 2 will pick up “an unspecified amount of time” after the end of Season 1 and will see the Gemstones in “a pretty awesome place.” Amid the pandemic, he rewrote scripts for Season 2 and says the characters will now address COVID-19, albeit “in very small ways.” For instance, he teased that the Gemstones have been “able to deliver to the world a streaming service that allowed people to stay at home and watch Gemstone broadcasts” during quarantine. Kelvin will also be launching his own new venture in Season 2, having created what McBride calls “a muscleman army that he’s housing and training,” while his sister Judy has just eloped with BJ, rather unsurprisingly creating “a little bit of a snag with the family.” However, McBride asserts that Eli, the family patriarch, is actually the character who “we do our deep dive on this season,” including “expanding the Gemstone mythology and…the humble roots that Eli overcame to build this empire.” One thing we might not get in Season 2, though? Another toe-tapping hit. While the original song “Misbehavin’”—sung by Walton Goggins and Jennifer Nettles in Season 1—went viral after Season 1 aired, don’t expect another earworm this time around. When asked in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about plans to top the song, McBride replied, “We’ll have a sophomore slump this season. But then in the third season, that’s the time we’ll beat “Misbehavin’.”
Who is in the cast of The Righteous Gemstones for Season 2?
The Righteous Gemstones fans, rejoice! Several stars will be returning for Season 2, including these cast members.
Danny McBride as Jesse Gemstone
While McBride also co-created the HBO series Eastbound and Down and Vice Principals, The Righteous Gemstones marks his first time with sole creator credit. He (and his mutton chops) will be back onscreen, too, as he reprises the role of Jesse in Season 2. The first season largely centered on the eldest Gemstone sibling getting blackmailed over his sordid personal life.
Edi Patterson as Judy Gemstone
In addition to serving as one of the show’s writers (and a co-writer of the show’s catchy song “Misbehavin’”), Patterson stars as Judy, the Gemstone sister fighting for recognition in her patriarchal family. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she dubbed Judy “probably more frustrated than any character I’ve ever played.”
Adam Devine as Kelvin Gemstone
Devine (of Pitch Perfect fame) will once again play Kelvin, the approval-hungry youngest child in the Gemstone family. While the role bears certain similarities to the Workaholics star’s other acting work, he previously said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that it’s also more of a “straight man” character. “I mean, I’m playing a man-child, which is something that I’m oh so good at,” he explained. “I knew that I could play that character, but what I tried to do for this character, weirdly enough, is really ground him and make him seem like a real guy.”
John Goodman as Eli Gemstone
The older generation of Gemstones includes patriarch Eli Gemstone, who is running his empire in the wake of his wife’s death. “Because of his grief, he’s just falling apart quick, and he’s been focused on the business side of things for a long time, and I think he feels justified in doing that,” Goodman told Vox of his character.
Jennifer Nettles as Aimee-Leigh Gemstone
Country star Nettles (one half of music duo Sugarland) stars as the Gemstone’s late matriarch, who previously held the fractured family together. “Aimee-Leigh is pretty natural to me, once I tapped into my Southern Baptist roots,” Nettles told GoldDerby of her recurring role in the series. In addition to the actors who play the immediate Gemstone family, other returning stars will include Walton Goggins (as “Baby” Billy Freeman) Tony Cavalero (as Keefe Chambers), Cassidy Freeman (as Jesse’s wife Amber Gemstone) Tim Baltz (as BJ, Judi’s soon-to-be husband), Skyler Gisondo (as Gideon) and Greg Alan Williams (as Martin Imari). There will also be at least three new faces joining the franchise, including Jason Schwartzman as Thaniel, a journalist with a scoop that threatens the family, and Eric Andre (of Bad Trip and The Eric Andre Show) as Lyle Lissons, a fellow megachurch pastor who teams up with Jesse and Amber. Rounding out the new additions, Eric Roberts is set to star as Junior, who will likely add to Eli’s backstory as he reportedly “grew up with [him] and re-enters his life.”
Will there be a Season 3 of The Righteous Gemstones?
Don’t lose faith over filming delays; we haven’t seen the last of The Righteous Gemstones just yet. Even though Season 2 has yet to premiere, director and executive producer David Gordon Green has already teased that there will be a Season 3, tellingCollider in October, “We’ve been picked up for a third and they want us to do another one. So we’re cooking on ideas for that right now. It is so sprawling and epic with its ensemble.”
How to watch The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 and Season 2
The Righteous Gemstones Season 1 is available to stream in its entirety on HBO Max, which is also where Season 2 will debut in 2022. Next, We’d Kill for More! Everything We Know About Why Women Kill Season 3, Including the Cast and Release Date
