Acting legend Shirley MacLaine has joined the cast of Only Murders in the Building for Season 2, adding to the already stacked cast. Vanity Fair recently gave us a look into her role in the upcoming season.
MacLaine will play the mother of recently murdered Arconia apartment resident Bunny, the former board president of the building and frequent opponent to the podcasting amateur sleuths. The first season of the series explored the mystery surrounding the murder of resident Tim Kono and the investigation that arose after the death. Three otherwise strangers, Mabel, played by Selena Gomez, CharlesHaden, played by Steve Martin, and Oliver, played by Martin Short, take it upon themselves to solve the crime and document their findings in a hodgepodge podcast. The first season saw the group successful in their investigation, but ended with Mabel being found with Bunny's body, covered in blood. How the second season will unfurl this new mystery is yet to be seen.
In his interview with Vanity Fair, co-creator John Hoffman stated that the second season will dive deeper into “this understanding about place and time and history, and how lives are lived in places like that—in a communal way, in an apartment building—with secrets and great mysteries that factor into them.” The season will continue to explore the series leads' relationship to the building, and how it is even more interlinked than perviously thought.
Hoffman also discussed acting legend Shirley MacLaine's highly anticipated role in the new season. The role is MacLaine's first television series role since her recurring role on the series Glee nearly a decade ago. MacLaine was apparently so taken by the role on Only Murders in the Building that she traveled all the way from her home in New Mexico to film her part.
Of her work on the new season Hoffman said,“[s]he’s 88 now and as sharp as they come.” He continued, “[t]he beautiful thing for me was [Steve Martin] saying, before she arrived, ‘I cannot believe I’m going to get to do things with Shirley MacLaine.’ Then he went on and on about seeing her when he was young. That really moved me.” And Martin's hero-worship of MacLaine is not unwarranted. MacLaine has won an Oscar, an Emmy, and six Golden Globes, among other accolades. Her career has spanned over seventy years.
However, until then we won't be able to see what comes of the intersection of Martin and MacLaine until June 28, 2022, when the second season of Only Murders in the Building returns to Hulu.