1 of 3 | Cast members Julianne Nicholson (R) and Sterling K. Brown attend the premiere of Hulu’s “Paradise” Season 2 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on February 18. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown says his character Xavier still doesn’t know whether to trust his brilliant, but secretive boss Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) in Season 2 of the post-apocalyptic drama, Paradise.
Premiering Monday on Hulu, the second season of the show opens with Sinatra hospitalized after being shot by her acolyte Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom), which causes chaos for the disaster survivors living in Sinatra’s sophisticated underground bunker in Colorado.
Meanwhile, Secret Service Agent Xavier, right-hand man to the community’s president Cal (James Marsden) until he was murdered, has taken off to look for his wife Teri (Enuka Okuma) and to see what is left of the outside world.
He leaves his two children in the care of someone he trusts — Jane! — not knowing she tried to kill Sinatra.
“Xavier leaves the bunker in hopes of finding his wife. He heard her voice on a recording that Sinatra shared with him. I don’t know if I trust her fully, but the idea that [Teri] could possibly be alive was enough for me to go outside of this bunker, leave my children behind, and possibly reunite my family,” Brown, 49, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. “So, there is a hopefulness and an eagerness to find his beloved.”
Things are a little bleaker for the architect of what was billed as a utopian society.
“We find Sinatra in her most vulnerable state, literally just laid out in a coma, and she comes back and it’s, basically, how to find her way back into power, so, that she can keep her bigger plan on the path,” Nicholson said.
“We’re all getting sick of each other down there, talking a lot. Thank God, we’ve got some fresh blood [this season],” she laughed, referring to new characters played by Shailene Woodley and Thomas Doherty.
“No, I think, for Sinatra, it’s just keeping it going and making sure that, with the discovery of life outside of the bunker, that it doesn’t all fall apart in her hands.”
Brown said Xavier wants the bunker to remain a safe place because his children are still living in it.
“It’s a bit of a refuge from whatever he thinks he’s going to find on the outside. It’s a place he needs to get back to,” Brown added.
Xavier wants to be with his kids, even though he thinks they are being well-cared for by Jane.
“The thing I love about Jane is she’s this character that Xavier does not have full information about that the audience does. So, there’s this one character that everybody knows about, except for him,” Brown said.
“He’s sort of delightfully in the dark, while everybody’s like: ‘Can’t you see, bro? This chick is evil.’ I enjoy that dynamic in the story.”
Nicholson chimed in: “It’s fun when you have something like that happening that really gets the audience involved because they’re shouting at the TV, ‘Don’t trust her because she’s lying!”
“I’m just giving her hugs and wiping tears away,” Brown quipped.
Nicholson said a Season 2 episode will reveal Jane’s back story.
“We get to really have an understanding about why she is the way she is and where she’s coming from because you think you should be afraid of her, but you have no idea,” she added.
The stars said they love being a part of good storytelling that reveals truths about the world we live in, without telling viewers how to think or feel about them.
“It also offers a little bit of escapism. So, I think the distance [between fiction and reality] actually allows you to reflect on what’s happening in the world in a way that doesn’t feel mediciney or preachy, but it’s entertaining and thought provoking,” Brown said. “So, I like the combination.”
Nicholson agreed.
“Giving us, as an audience, as people in the world, space to be thinking about what’s going on in the world around us, but not in a heavy-handed way, can only be a positive,” she said.
“It sort of touches people in a different way when it feels that close to them in their own lives. It just lands differently and that feels exciting.”
Sterling K. Brown, Shailene Woodley attend ‘Paradise’ Season 2 premiere
Cast member Sterling K. Brown (R) and his wife Ryan Michelle Bathe attend the premiere of Hulu’s “Paradise” Season 2 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Storyline: A Secret Service agent investigates the murder of a former president in a seemingly peaceful community. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI.. | License Photo
