‘Poker Face’ Creator and Stars on Living Up to Season 1, Working With Multiple Cynthia Erivos and Kumail Nanjiani’s Alligator Dreams

variety.com:

Matt Minton mminton@variety.com Coming off the initial success of “Poker Face” on Peacock, show creator Rian Johnson didn’t approach the new season with any desire to outdo himself.

Instead, the goal was to “do what we [already] did in Season 1 and just do more of it.” “The idea was not to build out some bigger mythology or to see where Charlie goes bigger with her arc,” Johnson said Saturday during the show’s PaleyFest panel at the Dolby Theatre. “The idea was just — ‘Let’s make some really kickass episodes, and let’s try something different with each episode.’ So every time the credits come up at the beginning, the viewer doesn’t know what they’re gonna get.” Season 2 kicks off with the human lie detector Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) once again on the run from Beatrix Hasp (Rhea Perlman).

The action-packed season premiere features “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo, who plays a set of sextuplets. “We had a 10-day schedule to shoot that, which is a very fast schedule for the amount of script it was,” Johnson said. “It’s not like we were using high, crazy camera technology.

It was literally leaving the camera there, Cynthia would do half of her scene, she would go and change and she somehow kept it all in her head and was the loveliest person in the world.” Lyonne wears multiple hats on “Poker Face” as executive producer, director and writer, in addition to being the series’ lead star.