Abbott Elementary promises ' Friends -type' bottle episodes in season 2
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Are you ready to go back to school?
Abbott Elementary has their pencils sharpened and their chalkboards prepped to welcome you back on Sept. 21, but first the cast and creative team stopped by Comic-Con (virtually) to tease what's ahead in their second season (including more episodes than season 1's 13!).
"We spent a lot of the first season building up what this show is capable of," creator, star, and executive producer Quinta Brunson said of the ABC comedy. "Showing you guys through our 13 episodes what it was that we could do, making you fall in love with these characters. Now you are in love with them, so we get to have some real fun. Some good old-fashioned, I keep it calling it Friends-type, Fresh Prince of Bel Air-type fun. We've done all the building. Now we just get to have these fun bottle episodes that sometimes teach you a lot about the world and sometimes you don't learn about the world at all. You're just having fun with these characters."
All the fan-favorite antics will be back, but Brunson also promised fun cameos and a glimpse into the home lives of these characters we've come to know and love. "The most surprising home situation I would think would be Gregory (Tyler James Williams) or Jacob (Chris Perfetti)," she teased. "Everybody else's will be what you expect."
Pamela Littky/ABC
There will also be some surprise additions to the cast. "A lot of people in the room might see somebody that they like next season in addition to us," Brunson hinted. No, it's not Janelle James' pulling double duty as Ava's twin sister (though she did suggest just that).
"You're going to see a cameo in the first episode," Brunson teased. "You can have that. And it's a really good one. It's one that is the biggest star in the world to me. They are the biggest star we've seen thus far at Abbott Elementary."
Adds producer Justin Halpern: "It's one that we didn't think we'd be able to get. They were like, you can have them for one day. That's the only time they're available. We had to move our schedule."
What about the show's will-they-won't-they couple Janine (Brunson) and Gregory? The entire team was incredibly tight-lipped about where, if anywhere, that connection might go this season. "We are going to see single Janine," said Halpern. "The three of us have talked about [how] wherever we end up we want it to feel completely earned. Wherever we get to, we promise you will feel like that is satisfactory."
Before Sheryl Lee Ralph, who stars as the elegant Barbara, added, "I don't know if you'll get the outcome you're looking for."
Uh, can we give her detention for that?
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