A lot can happen in four years. Before the premiere of Season 3, the last time we’ve seen the cast of FX series Atlanta was in 2018. They’ve all gone from familiar faces on the small screen to bonafide superstars with prominent roles in Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters in breakout films such as Solo, The Eternals, Joker, and Judas and the Black Messiah.
“Everybody is 10 times more famous than the last time we were all together but the vibe is absolutely the same,” Atlanta’s director Hiro Murai told Cassius Life at the show’s red carpet premiere in Hollywood on Thursday, March 24. “We all kind of grew up together. So it’s nice to be back together.”
Murai told us that Season 3 was approached as a ghost story and was very conceptual. We’d like to envision more dark and twisted Teddy Perkins-type of rounds are hiding in the bag this entry before we get a formal goodbye in Season 4.
Sans a freaky glimpse at Atlanta’s haunted Lake Lanier and based on real events kidnapping story in the first episode, Season 3 finally leaves its namesake city and galavants across the water to Amsterdam where rapper Paper Boi’s popularity has grown outside of the trap and we finally catch up with the rest of the crew.
“To be honest with you I was kind of nervous about coming back to Alfred,” said Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Alfred aka Paper Boi. “I wasn’t sure exactly where he even landed after season 2 because that was in 2018.”
Atlanta’s creator Donald Glover signed a lucrative 8-figure production deal with Amazon Studios last year. That most likely fast-tracked his breakup with FX and sealed the fate of his beloved Atlanta so that Glover could focus on his new babies, which include a new series where he hired former first daughter Malia Obama as a show writer. Also, the ballooning salaries of their now uber-famous cast probably couldn’t have helped. Seasons 3 & 4 were filmed concurrently ending the cast and crew’s time as a family for good once filming wrapped.
“It’s been more than seven years now. I grew up with these people,” says Lakeith Stanfield, who plays Darius. “They’ve seen me at my best, seen me at my worst. And like any relationship, they all end one day. I’m really glad to say that we ended on a fantastic note.”
With four seasons of surreal off-the-wall concepts and genius dark humor gems, what does Atlanta want the audience to take away from this ride?
“I just hope we were able to say it was like a time capsule for that time,” says Atlanta’s star and creator Donald Glover. “I look back at season one and some of the accents you don’t hear much in Atlanta, like my mom’s accent. So it’s a very nice time capsule.”
Watch Cassius Life’s interview with the cast in the video above.
