| Pilgrim’s Progress |
EXTINCTION EVENTS
THE LAZARUS PROJECT S2 Paapa Essiedu returns for more end-of-days, time-loop drama…
The Lazarus Project, named after Jesus’s pal who was raised from the dead, is an apt title for a show that faced a pandemic, a fiercely competitive media landscape, and now returns while striking TV writers and actors fight to stop the medium’s own armageddon. For the uninitiated, Joe Barton’s show presented George (Paapa Essiedu) joining the Lazarus Project – asecret group who can turn back time six months whenever the apocalypse is nigh. Series 1 featured betrayals-a-plenty, which put the fate of the world at stake. Now Barton and Essiedu speak to Teasers about what lies in store for Series 2.
How does George continue to navigate his unusual circumstances as the show returns?
Paapa Essiedu: George always enters these situations with his eyes open, and he emotionally feels the time loops. It means we see an emotional journey. With another character or genre show, it could be much colder.
How does that change with the time loops now going from six months to three weeks?
Joe Barton (creator): People speaking about the first series often referenced Groundhog Day because it’s the most famous time loop, but The Lazarus Project was a much more linear story about George’s moral journey. But now they’re stuck in this loop, so it starts off much more Groundhog Day and explores that effect on the character’s psychologies. But as the series goes on, it becomes much more of a time-travel show, and by the end, it’s even bigger.
You made the first series when the world felt pretty apocalyptic. How was it making Series 2 without that?
PE: Joe’s got quite a scary aspect to his writing, where pretty much anything bad that he writes [about] ends up happening in real life [laughs]. The first series we were in peak lockdown. With the masks, people I thought were 28, I found out, after six weeks working together, were in their 50s! So as a collective, we were buoyed by the new intimacy and freedoms we now had.
‘It becomes much more of a timetravel show’
JOE BARTON
JB: It was nice of them to give us another series! This one was pandemicfree but ironically, time was our biggest enemy. It was a very quick turnaround – they announced we’d got a second series and [then just] two months later was the first day of shooting.
We left on such a great cliffhanger. Does Series 2 do the same?
JB: I don’t think it ends on a cliffhanger. It ends on a question mark, perhaps? What do you think, Paapa?
PE: People are definitely hanging off a cliff! Are you kidding me? Joe’s been ambitious with Series 2, and in the final episodes, he leaves the audience guessing, and left us actors guessing, but provides a final beat that felt so satisfying.
THE LAZARUS PROJECT S2 AIRS ON SKY MAX AND STREAMS ON NOW THIS NOVEMBER.