The Returned - Season 2 - Production is starting + one main character will be absent

Ana Girardot (Lucy) is holding the script of episode 2.01 of Les revenants! It is happening!

Season 2 has started filming, and since Canal+ communicated about the show when they announced their line-up for the 2014/2015, it seems that they're expecting it to start airing before May 2015 (if they don't mention a show, it means it's not scheduled for this season, like Braquo, not mentioned but renewed for a fourth season that will likely air in 2015/2016).

As a reminder, here's the official synopsis for the new season : "A few weeks after the flood, in the Town now secured by the authorities, life keeps going. The survivors of the Helping Hand are the only ones who know about the Returned. Some of them are ready to do anything to find them."

Season 1 originally aired in November/December 2012. Since then, 70 countries have bought the series. Still, that will mean a two and half year-gap between the two 8-episode batches on Canal+.

And if you're in Tignes (where the dam is located) on October 22, 23 & 24, the producers are looking for extras, and they booked the Sainte Bernadette church in Annecy for filming in December.

By the way, if you paid close attention to the credits, you probably noticed that the first four episodes were co-written by Emmanuel Carrère. He was not involved in the production of the next four episodes. And now we know why: he's always been a novelist before being a TV/movie writer, and he recently published Le royaume (The Kingdom), a hybrid novel that he started with the following idea: "how can we explain the longevity of religions throughout time, which are grounded in rationality as much as mythological stories and fairytales and yet managed to rule the world?". To answer that question among others, Carrère evokes his stay in the writers' room of Les revenants, which inspired him in tackling that subject (after all, the show talks about the dead coming back, and we know one guy who did that according to some scriptures).

Anyway, Emmanuel Carrère is very critical of the way Canal+ produces the show: "For four months, I worked every day with (creator) Fabrice Gobert, always enthusiast and often stunned by the situations we were creating, the feelings we were manipulating. Then, as far as I'm concerned, things started to turn sour with the people at the channel. I'm almost 20 years older than Fabrice, I couldn't handle as well as him to constantly "take exams" in front of youngsters sporting a three-day stubble, old enough to be my sons, and pouting in a blasé way at what we were writing. It was very tempting to just say: "since you seem to know everything, why don't you do it yourselves, guys?". I couldn't go on. Against the wise advices from Hélène, my wife, and François, my agent, I lacked humility and stormed out halfway through the season".

What I have in mind when Carrère talks about 20-somethings telling him what's wrong with his scripts:

(Btw, it's Daisy Haggard as Myra in Episodes, the sharp and funny Showtime/BBC Two comedy series starring Matt LeBlanc, Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig)

Thankfully, creator / main writer / director Fabrice Gobert is still here to helm this new season. He recently said : "Success leads to pressure, but it's a positive one".

And to add to that pressure, he will have to do without Alix Poisson, who plays Laure, a gendarme in the town and Julie's former lover, for at least half of season 2.



(Alix Poisson, between Céline Sallette (Julie) and creator/director Fabrice Gobert)

Indeed, Alix Poisson is pregnant and that cannot be written into the story, therefore she will miss at least the first 4 episodes but will come back in the second half.

Source.
Source #2.