Platonic creators and real-life husband and wife Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller took a break from writing Season 2 of their Apple TV+ show to speak with Deadline about Season 1. But, looking ahead, they promised fans can expect the same screw-ups out of Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and Will (Seth Rogen).
“These two characters have their insecurities and issues,” Stoller said at Contenders TV. “Those won’t be solved by a marriage and starting a wedding planning business. We’re all always the same messed up people at all times. No matter what you do, you’re still dealing with those issues.”
The season finale set up Will with a fiancée and Sylvia starting her new business. Those stories will continue over the season, with episodic banter and exploits.
“We want to do more of the same thing,” Delbanco said. “We know it has to be a little bit different. Essentially it has to be a story about their friendship, their lives, their relationship to each other and how they help or hurt each other.”
Despite Season 1’s visit to San Diego, Stoller and Delbanco confirmed Season 2 will still be set predominantly in Los Angeles.
“We have some San Diego and some Los Angeles,” Delbanco said. “We have mostly Los Angeles.”
Setting Platonic in Los Angeles was inspired by Delbanco and Stoller’s real life.
“So much is shot here and so much is made here and I often feel when I watch TV and movies I don’t recognize the place I live,” Delbanco said. “We felt it was time to try to do that.”
Delbanco and Stoller also confirmed the show would continue to live up to its title. Will and Sylvia will remain friends and Sylvia at least is happily married.
“It is the lowest fi idea in history,” Delbanco said. “There’s no suspense or tension about ‘Will they or won’t they?’ They’re just buddies. We thought it was important to try to represent that, the possibility that men and women can be friends with each other and those friendships can provide something friendships with your own gender can’t provide — or something extra.”
Delbanco recalled taking a trip to Las Vegas to reconnect with two male friends, without Stoller, causing suspicion amongst their mutuals, yet Stoller was okay with it. Conversely, Stoller acknowledged how rarely married men socialize with female friends.
“I’d be like, ‘Name one time in the past year that you’ve gone to dinner with a woman without your wife,’” Stoller said. “No one can.”
