'Big Little Lies' Season 2 To See The Return Of Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, And Zoë Kravitz
The gang is all back for round two of Big Little Lies with the return of Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, and Zoë Kravitz.
Cast Renewed
HBO announced that the trio will join Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman for the second season of the award-winning hit show. Dern and Woodley snatched Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for their roles in Big Little Lies, which the former both won.
Rounding off the A-list cast is newly signed Meryl Streep.
The series, which is based on Liane Moriarty's book of the same name, was originally intended to be a single season effort. Season 1 already covered the entirety of the novel. However, the critical success of the show propelled it into a second season deal with HBO. With none of the stars on contract for a second season, the entire cast had to be signed to new contracts with considerable salary bumps.
With Witherspoon leveraging an already-inked Apple deal with Jennifer Aniston that sources say is over $1.25 million per episode, all five of the returning cast members of Big Little Lies is expecting a bigger payday as well, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter.
Insiders reveal that Witherspoon and Kidman, who were the first ones to confirm their return, will be getting around $1 million per episode for Season 2. Co-stars Kravitz and Woodley also negotiated a raise.
'Big Little Lies' Season 2
In the second season of the acclaimed television series, Streep will play Mary Louise Wright, Perry's (Alexander Skarsgård) mother who comes into town to find answers about her son.
Kidman, who plays Celeste Wright, will need to find herself and stand on her own after the death of her husband.
Witherspoon's Madeline Martha Mackenzie is also reeling from the revelations of the first season, which leads her to confront her marriage and family.
Woodley returns as Jane Chapman, who tries to move on from her past to create a life for herself and son Ziggy in Monterey, California.
Dern reprises her award-winning role as Type A character Renata Klein, who suddenly has to deal with marital challenges.
Kravitz also returns in the role of Bonnie Carlson, who confronts past demons for the first time.
HBO describes the upcoming season as an exploration of "malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage, and ... the vicious ferocity of sound parenting." There is the potential of emotional and bodily injury.
The second season of Big Little Lies will have seven episodes, like the first season. David E. Kelley will return to write the scripts for all the episodes.
Big Little Lies is expected to return in 2019.
