Just when we thought we couldn’t be more excited for a second season of Big Little Lies, a new announcement from HBO has revealed that none other than Meryl Streep will be joining the cast for round two.
Meryl, who’ll be the third Oscar winning actress on the BLL roll call (alongside Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon, who also serve as executive producers), is set to play the mother of the abusive Perry Wright (played by Alexander Skarsgard), who – spoiler alert – was revealed to be the subject of the show’s murder investigation in the final episode.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Mary Louise Wright is ‘concerned for the well-being of her grandchildren’ after the death of her son, and arrives in Monterey ‘searching for answers.’
Nicole Kidman’s character Celeste, meanwhile, is said to be ‘reeling from her husband Perry’s death’ at the start of season two, ‘adrift but determined to fight for her family and the woman she once was.’
Reports suggest that three-time Oscar winner Meryl will receive $800,000 per episode. Reese and Nicole are set to earn $1 million for each episode, a base salary which doesn’t include what they’ll receive for their executive producer duties.
The rest of the cast has not yet been officially confirmed to return to the show, but it’s thought that both Zoe Kravitz and Shailene Woodley will reprise their roles, with Alexander Skarsgard apparently returning ‘in some capacity’ for season two.
While Big Little Lies was originally conceived as a one-off mini-series, it seems that its awards success (picking up eight Emmys and four Golden Globes) convinced HBO to give a second season the green light.
According to HBO, season two will deal with ‘the malignancy of lies, the durability of friendships, the fragility of marriage and, of course, the vicious ferocity of sound parenting. Relationships will fray, loyalties will erode… the potential for emotional and bodily injury shall loom.’
2019 can’t come fast enough…