Armando Iannucci explains how the pandemic influenced "Avenue 5" season 2

While the plot of "Avenue 5" revolves around an ill-fated luxury space cruise, helmed by a man who can't really fly, the show itself has taken quite a bit of travel to get to its second season. After being put on hiatus at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the sci-fi comedy is back with an even weirder, pent-up lockdown energy and an even sharper grip on failing threads and ending quacks. often by ruling the world. Creator Armando Iannucci joined the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast to discuss a few new additions to the world of "Avenue 5", changes to its titular ship set, and the things that never change about satire, no matter what. either the genre in which we work.

"It was about smaller spaces, but more varied. We used our space to create smaller, more intimate environments," Iannucci said. Some of that intimacy actually comes from compressing the cast members in smaller, more claustrophobic spaces, but some of it also comes from the new ways Iannucci uses his futuristic setting to tear apart the many flaws in modern communication and culture. Notable additions are a fictionalized version of prestige of "Avenue 5" designed for Earth audiences while Avenue 5 still limps to the planet and an Instagram-Live-esque chat show where reactions drown out the news. feel smaller, except in all the ways Iannucci wants her to feel like fads and egos keep us from focusing on bigger issues. e of the series (and many characters) delightfully petty, while offering new challenges that Captain Ryan (Hugh Laurie) and his crew will always do their best to overcome.

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Listen to the full discussion below or read on for excerpts from the conversation. To listen to these conversations and more with your favorite TV and movie creators, subscribe to the Toolkit podcast via , , , or .

Partial highlights from the transcript below: Armando Iannucci explains how "Avenue 5" changed between seasons 1 and 2

If season 1 is about everything that happens outside the ship - things/corpses that revolve around them - season 2 is about what happens inside, really. Because I think that shared experience of lockdown, where we're stuck with people for a while and trying to fill the day, we had a lot more to take from that experience in season 2, because that's precisely what 'they all go through on the ship. So [the show] became a lot more real and it was about the reality of it, in a weird way. I know storylines involve cannibalism and all sorts of things. But I wanted it to feel more claustrophobic. Actually, you know, you shouldn't notice it overtly, but when we came back for Season 2, the hallways got a little tighter. There was more mess, you know, this idea of ​​righteous people stopped clearing things up.

In Season 1, people are walking around in their vacation clothes like they're going to do something. In Season 2, the note I gave was, "Imagine you're stuck in an airport and there's no sign of a robbery." People are just sitting, playing cards or chatting. But these aren't people running around excited because they're on vacation. These are people who are waiting. You won't go to the spa for eight years, you know? Story-wise, I wanted to look at the psychological progression with the characters rather than the events happening to them. It's more like "How are they reacting to this general situation?" And where does that leave us?

In season 1, after we did one take and there were 50 background artists, people would come and clean the carpets and so on before we did the next take. This time, I remember telling them, "No, stop, leave this mess, leave all the footprints." You know, I just wanted the place to look like it was actually lived in. I gave the rating that people needed to take ownership of the rooms. From now on, these are no longer hotel rooms that you have to leave as you found them. If you want to paint them, paint them, you know? If you want to hang things on the wall, hang them on the wall. If you want to put things outside, do it.