Charles Melton Confirms ‘Beef’ Season 2 Casting, Says Production Is ‘Happening Soon’
Charles Melton is spilling the beans on “Beef” Season 2.
While the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning Netflix and A24 limited series has not officially been renewed for a second season, Melton confirmed that he is indeed cast in the next installment. “Beef” starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two L.A. residents whose road rage incident spurs mutual destruction in their respective personal lives.
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Deadline reported that Season 2 will instead focus on two warring couples, with “May December” breakout Melton and “Priscilla” star Cailee Spaeny playing one duo. While both Melton and Spaeny have separately confirmed their respective castings, the other actors Deadline reported have not.
Those stars are rumored to be Oscar winners Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan as the other couple; Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway were rumored to have also been asked to join the series. And this wouldn’t be the first time Gyllenhaal and Isaac were in talks for the same part: Gyllenhaal was first approached to lead “Ex Machina” in 2014 before Isaac was cast.
As for “Beef” Season 2, Deadline reported that production was looking to start in early fall 2024. Now, Melton is teasing that it will be in production “soon.”
“I’m very excited. That’s all happening soon,” Melton told V Man magazine while in conversation with Greta Lee. “It’s some of the best stuff I’ve ever read.”
Melton even added that while traveling in Europe, he ran into “Beef” star Steven Yeun.
“You know who I saw on the train the other day? I was going to Switzerland — God, this sounds ridiculous— I saw Steven Yeun and his whole family,” Melton said.
Melton’s “Beef” Season 2 co-star Spaeny also told the New York Times that production on the series would begin after she wrapped the third “Knives Out” feature, “Wake Up Dead Man.”
“Beef” series creator Lee Sung Jin signed an overall deal with Netflix in November 2023 to produce more projects for the streaming platform. He previously described the series to IndieWire as “35 percent Paul Thomas Anderson-slash-‘Sopranos’ comedy, where you’re laughing at the broken psychology of people, plus 35 percent ‘White Lotus’ propulsion -slash-Netflix watercooler moments, plus 30 percent Ingmar Bergman-slash-Hirokazu Koreeda warm, melancholic pathos. We’re driving around in literal bubbles and projecting so much onto others, with so many assumptions, and there’s a lot going on in our own lives that add to that projection.”
Lee also said backstage at the Emmys (via Variety) that there are “so many paths” more “Beef” could take.
“It was a very close-ended story for sure,” Lee said of the jaw-dropping finale. “But if Netflix wanted to continue, it could also be anthology. It could be many things. It’s up to the great algorithm. We’re all waiting to hear.”
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