Season three of comedy Atlanta begins on FX March 24, and season four arrives in the fall. Season four, which has been shot, will be the final one for the Donald Glover series.
“The new season is everything you have come to expect from Atlanta,” said FX Chairman John Landgraf in a TCA session, “which is to say: expect the unexpected, sit back, and enjoy the trip.”
Season two premiered way back in March 2018. Season three takes place mostly in Europe, with Earn, Alfred, Darius and Van on tour, stops in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin, among other cities. The season was written in 2019, and both COVID and Glover’s busy schedule prevented a quicker release.
In the TCA session, Glover said the season three writing presages a lot of what has happened in real life. “A lot of this stuff is going to seem like a parody of stuff that happened, but we actually prophesied most of this shit in 2020,” he said. “Like, the world is extremely predictable. We really just knew how a lot of this stuff was going to pan out.”
Season three is about “the curse of whiteness,” said Stephen Glover.
Atlanta is executive produced by Donald Glover, Stephen Glover, Hiro Murai, Stefani Robinson, Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle.
Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry and Zazie Beetz are in the cast.
Episodes stream on Hulu the day after their premiere.
Season four, for its part, shows a more mature writers’ room, Donald Glover suggested. “There's some stuff that we changed in season four because I think we all changed,” he said. “We all got older and just went through our life. I think COVID was a very reflective time, so all of us kind of grew up.”
Glover, who performs as Childish Gambino, was asked about his process for writing TV versus music. “The machines might be different, but they're making the same thing,” he said. “They're making moments for people. And obviously there's big differences. Like, you can have music on in the background and jump in whenever you want. You can't do that with a show. You need to pay attention for it to make sense. But at the end of the day, it's moments.”
Donald Glover said Atlanta had run its course and is ready to wrap. “I think it ends perfectly,” he said. ■
