‘Perry Mason’ Season 2: Matthew Rhys Shares Update on Status of HBO Series
Perry Mason will be back on the case — eventually. In July 2020, HBO renewed its reimagined version of the popular 1950s legal drama that originally starred Raymond Burr. Since then, there hasn’t been much in the way of news about the show. But in a recent interview, Perry Mason actor Matthew Rhys shared an update on when production might begin. The bad news for fans is that it sounds like they might be waiting a while for new episodes.
Matthew Rhys offers update on the next season of HBO’s ‘Perry Mason’
Rhys, who is also a producer on the show, offered a few updates on Perry Mason Season 2 in an interview with Deadline published May 24. He hinted that fans of the period drama shouldn’t expect to see him back in the fedora in the near future.
“That’s an ever-moving set of goalposts,” he said when asked when production on the show’s sophomore season might begin. “It’s been moving steadily like an iceberg for some time. And I think we’re just basically looking at winter now.”
Rhys did share that the plan was to shoot again in Los Angeles. “We’ll be back among the angels,” he said. Season 1 featured memorable scenes at LA landmarks such as the Angels Flight funicular railway, Los Angeles City Hall, and Musso & Frank Grill, though in some cases, green screens were used to recreate the look of the city in the 1930s.
What to expect from ‘Perry Mason’ Season 2
Rhys, who earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance as Mason, didn’t have too much to share in the way of details about what might be in store for his character next season.
“I’m yet to be a party to the big conversation, because I know they’re busy working on it,” The Americans star explained.
By the end of the first season, Mason, who started out as a small-time private detective, had become a lawyer. That change opens up a range of possibilities for season 2, Rhys said.
“It’s kind of great, because at the end of Season 1, Perry begins an entirely new chapter in his life,” he told Deadline. “Yes, you are picking up where you left off, to a degree, but you’re also beginning something completely new and different. Being the person he is, experiencing the judicial system and its obstacles, I think will be very interesting, hopefully.”
Rhys doesn’t want Perry Mason to become an ‘incredible’ lawyer
During Perry Mason’s first season, the title character was dealing with a number of issues, including lingering PTSD from his time in the trenches during World War I, the end of his marriage and estrangement from his young son, and financial difficulties and the loss of his parents’ farm.
In a 2020 interview, Rhys told Esquire that his character had “shed a lot” of baggage over the course of the show’s first eight episodes. “The first season is a real catharsis for him. He finally finds a place,” he said.
Looking ahead to season 2, one thing Rhys said he hopes doesn’t happen is for Mason to become an unstoppable legal genius.
“One more thing that draws for me about Mason was how flawed he is, and how wrong he gets things, and how difficult he finds things,” he said. “I hope that continues. I hope all of a sudden we don’t see him as this incredible trial lawyer and everything’s rosy, you know?”
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