Dan Fogelman on Redemption, Reunion, and Reinventing “Paradise”

Dan Fogelman’s post‑apocalyptic thriller, Paradise, ended last season with Secret Service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) sneaking off in a propeller plane to search for his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), who was presumed dead for years after an extinction-level event. He and their children live in a seemingly idyllic town—the eponymous Paradise—that turns out to be a vast underground bunker. The facsimile of a city is controlled by unhinged tech billionaire Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), who became obsessed with saving humanity following a personal tragedy. In the Season Two opener, we meet museum tour guide Annie (Shailene Woodley), who survived this period alone in Elvis Presley’s Memphis estate, Graceland, before her connection to Xavier’s destiny slowly unravels.

Thanks to $15.5 million in California production incentives, the Hulu series was shot in Southern California over 96 shoot days, employing 450 cast and crew members. Fogelman is particularly devoted to keeping production in the state because he has seen firsthand the impact film production can have on the businesses that rely on it. “For the past decade-plus, all my shows have been primarily based here,” he shares. With Paradise filming in California, that means a large production whose impact touches a vast network of businesses that support cast and crew. “Fewer shows in Los Angeles means fewer premieres and events, which impacts the waiters/waitresses and bartenders who work those events. There is an economy that relies on our business, and when production leaves L.A., it impacts jobs in places you wouldn’t even think of at the outset.”

Fogelman recently spoke to The Credits about providing Paradise’s main villain with a redeeming arc and why he made the bold choice to anchor the season opener on a surprising new character.  

Why is it important to you to shoot this series in California? 

Both Sterling and I have young families. To do a television series that’s a multi-year commitment, it wasn’t possible outside of Los Angeles. Also, This Is Us shot in Los Angeles for six seasons, and I loved working with that crew. So, I wanted to bring as many of them as possible onto this show. It was more about the crew and their families.

What are some of the main benefits of shooting in Southern California?

This town is built on this industry, so you get the best selection of craftspeople. When people can go home to their families at the end of long days and spend weekends with their families, in their own beds, in their own homes, that really filters into the work. The opportunity to work on something that inspires you and then go home to your family at the end of the day—those opportunities are few and far between. When you’re on location and separated from your family, it takes a toll. And this is hard work with incredibly long hours. So, it’s such a gift to be able to do it where you live.

I’m so glad you didn’t make us wait too long for Xavier’s much-anticipated reunion with Teri! What factored into when it should occur?

We didn’t want to draw that out too long. The big mystery this season was: is Teri alive? Will he find her? We wanted to answer those because a whole bunch of new mysteries are about to unfurl and will eventually propel us into the third season.

It was a bold choice to anchor the entire first episode on the new character, Annie, who seemingly has nothing to do with Xavier’s quest or the bunker. What was behind that decision?

I was very scared of it at the beginning. Xavier going out into the world that he hasn’t been a part of for three years means there are only a couple of ways to tell the audience what happened: either Xavier hears about it a lot on-camera or we use flashbacks. But I really wanted to tell the story of one character’s journey through those three years, one that’s very different from Xavier’s in Paradise. So the big question was: how can we do this on a show with a devoted audience after a year off the air, with a new character in a new location?  

How did this idea come about?

I was really excited to do a survival story about a young woman with anxiety issues, who survived the apocalypse by herself in Graceland. It was all going to come down to the casting of Annie. For this to work, it had to be an A-plus across the board. If not, I was going to reverse the order of the first two episodes and start with Xavier’s journey and end the first episode with him meeting this mysterious pregnant stranger. That was my backup plan. But once I saw Shailene’s performance, I knew we had it! After the first couple of minutes of disorientation, we forget what we’re watching until Xavier comes back at the end. That was a really exciting moment for all of us.

This season sometimes feels like a completely different show. For instance, we really hone in on loneliness, especially with mail carrier Gary’s (Cameron Britton) heartbreak once he realizes Teri will leave with Xavier.

I think you’re right. The first season was a political thriller that turns into a dystopian thriller and murder mystery, and the second season is a post-apocalyptic story and heads into a different territory and genre while still holding onto the same feeling. You could view this season as a treatise on loneliness and the little ‘bunkers’ or islands that we create for ourselves, whether it’s during an apocalypse or in our everyday lives. It’s about human connection, grief, and real isolation. Our superpower as human beings is our ability to connect—we’re not good at being islands. A lot of this season is about people who are alone. Xavier’s alone because he’s missing his wife; Gary and Annie are isolated because of circumstance and their own internal makeup. But it’s about them finding connection.

Most of Paradise is intense, which makes the tender and sweet flashback episode when Xavier first meets Teri a nice surprise. Was that just to give the audience a bit of a respite?

I’ve always been interested in exploring stories with many sides; life isn’t just one thing. I’ve been to my share of really brutal, gut-wrenching funerals, but I’m constantly struck by how much laughter and love there is in those 24 hours, along with the deep grief. In that second episode, Xavier is at his ultimate post-apocalyptic state; he’s really injured and desperate and drowns a man in the mud, and then you see this rom-com performance too. Our lives can hold both of those spaces: you can tell a brutal survival story of a young woman in Graceland while still giving her a romantic love story in the middle of it. I think Sterling does that incredibly well in that episode.

[Spoiler warning] Once Xavier’s family is finally reunited, we learn that there is a second bunker 100 miles away from Paradise. How did you approach the finale after this huge build-up?

I always knew the second season was going to end with the bunker coming down—the collapse of the world they’d built to save themselves—and Sinatra would sacrifice herself to save everyone.

Was it always the plan to kill Sinatra off?

Yes. As you know, in my shows, sometimes dead characters play a really big part [referring to This is Us]. I told Julianne at the beginning of this season before I started writing. It always sucks even if it’s the right thing for the story. But I wanted hers to be a redemption arc that also moves the story forward. I always felt that by the end, Sinatra would be redeemed to a certain extent, or at least viewed through a different prism.

Sinatra is deeply committed to saving civilization – why is that?

Her son died when he was a young boy. Out of her grief came a desire to save her remaining child, which is a big part of her plan to build the bunker. We make several references to time and quantum computing, and Link (Thomas Doherty) emerges with the same name and birthday as her deceased son. Is this all coincidence? Do things happen for a reason? Is there something else on a science fiction level going on here? All that’s for the third season to explore.

Why is the secondary bunker 100 miles away under the Denver Airport, instead of somewhere farther?

There’s a bunch of factors that go into it, which you’ll see next season. But one of the fun parts that will make Reddit and all the threads go crazy is there’s huge historical context and conspiracy theories about the Denver Airport. So, we thought it would be a really interesting setting for what comes next. Does Xavier decide to take this bizarre mission from someone who once tried to kill his daughter? What does he do with that responsibility? That’s the starting point for Season Three.

Produced by 20^th Television, Paradise is streaming on Hulu.

Featured image: PARADISE – “Exodus” – Worlds collide. Time is of the essence for Xavier. Link and his team spring into action. Sinatra puts it all on the line. (Disney/Ser Baffo). STERLING K. BROWN