Season Two

**Season 2** of *Russian Doll* is an upcoming American comedy-drama television series, created by Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, and Amy Poehler, which will premiere on April 20, 2022, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

*Set four years after Nadia (Natasha Lyonne) and Alan (Charlie Barnett) escaped mortality’s time loop together, season two of Russian Doll will continue to explore existential thematics through an often humorous and sci-fi lens. Discovering a fate even worse than endless death, this season finds Nadia and Alan delving deeper into their pasts through an unexpected time portal located in one of Manhattan’s most notorious locations. At first they experience this as an ever-expanding, era-spanning, intergenerational adventure but they soon discover this extraordinary event might be more than they bargained for and, together, must search for a way out.*

## Cast

### Main

* Natasha Lyonne as Nadia Vulvokov
* Charlie Barnett as Alan Zaveri
* Greta Lee as Maxine
* Elizabeth Ashley as Ruth Brenner
* Chloë Sevigny as Lenora Vulvokov

### Recurring

* Brooke Timber as Young Nadia
* Annie Murphy as Young Ruth
* Jeremy Bobb as Mike Kershaw
* Brendan Sexton III as Horse
* Rebecca Henderson as Lizzy
* Ritesh Rajan as Ferran
* Sharlto Copley as Chezare "Chez" Carrera
* Irén Bordán as Vera Peschauer
	+ Ilona McCrea portrays young Vera in 1944
* Athina Papadimitriu as Delia
	+ Franciscka Farkas portrays young Delia in 1944
* Ephraim Sykes as Derek
* Rosie O'Donnell voices the subway announcer
* Ken Beck as a paramedic

### Guest

* Anoop Desai as Salim
* Danielle Perez as librarian
* Max Baker as a doctor in a psychiatric ward
* Sandor Funtek as Lenny
* Balázs Czukor as Kristóf Halász
* Gergely Csiby as a German officer
* Piroska Molnár as a Hungarian woman who yells at Nadia and Maxine
* Phillipp Droste as Lukas
* Tulian Aczel as Bruno

## Gallery

### Videos

Natasha Lyonne Addresses Fans Demanding More Russian DollNatasha Lyonne On Her "Russian Doll" Character's Distinct Style - CONAN on TBSRussian Doll - Everything You Might Have Missed - NetflixNatasha Lyonne Insta-Stalks Her Russian Doll and OITNB Castmates - ELLECharlie Barnett on Russian Doll Ending- They’re Still Stuck - Vulture Emmy StudioRussian Doll - Season 2 Date Announcement - NetflixRussian Doll Season 2 - Official Trailer - Netflix'Russian Doll' Stars Natasha Lyonne and Charlie Barnett Unpack Season 2 - Entertainment WeeklyNatasha Lyonne Revisits Her Breakout Characters - Role Call - Entertainment WeeklyNatasha Lyonne Teases Secret Hollywood Romance & Tells It Like It Is - InStyleNatasha Lyonne on Being Too Much and Orange is the New Black - Russian Doll - Netflix'Russian Doll' Cast On What to Expect in Season 2 - Around the Table - Entertainment WeeklyNatasha Lyonne Monologue - SNLDrag Queens Trixie Mattel & Katya React to Russian Doll Season 2 - I Like to Watch - NetflixChloë Sevigny on Her Two Weddings and Playing Natasha Lyonne's Mom on Russian Doll - Tonight ShowCharlie Barnett ('Russian Doll') on Alan's mustache, finding 'freedom' in time travel - GOLD DERBY'Russian Doll' music supervisor Brienne Rose- Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd songs represent Season 2
## Episodes

NowhenConey Island BabyBrain DrainStation to StationExquisite CorpseSchrödinger's RuthMatryoshka
## Trivia

* On June 11, 2019, Netflix renewed the series for a second season.
* In March 2020, filming for season two was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
* On March 27, 2022 it was revealed that some new actors for Season 2 included Annie Murphy (*Schitt's Creek*), Sharlto Copley (*District 9*), Carolyn Michelle Smith (*House of Cards*), and Ephraim Sykes (*Hamilton*). Out of all these new cast announcements, the one for Smith was by far the most detailed since it revealed that she would play a recurring role this season.
* On March 29, 2022, Sevigny confirmed she'd be reprising her role as Lenora in the hotly anticipated second season of Netflix's "Russian Doll" starring Natasha Lyonne.
* On April 6, 2022 several caveats of information were revealed such as:
	+ Natasha Lyonne's character time traveling and delving into her Hungarian grandmother’s Holocaust experience.
	+ It will consist of seven episodes.
	+ Parts of the season were shot on location in Budapest.
* On April 9, 2022, Lyone told *Variety* at a rooftop celebration for the show at the Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel that, “It’s scary releasing trailers and things like that, because you’re trying to figure out the right amount [to show], if you want people to be able to go in cold... And yet, there’s a thirst, a hunger that dictates that this is the way that we do things.”
	+ Lyone also mentioned how she's excited for fans to see what they mean by ‘Crazy Train,’ because we’re not kidding,” she quips, adding the two words she’d use to tease the arc: “Choo choo”. Thus, to take the analogy one step further, if *Russian Doll* is a runaway locomotive, Lyonne is the conductor.
	+ Due to the number of jobs Lyonne holds in the production, she stated that,“When I’m in the writers room, I’m much more of a stressed out person who looks tired and worn down,” Lyonne noted. “In prep, all of a sudden it’s that person, but with a lot of parkas, because directing loves parkas and sneakers”.
	+ In Season 2, Lyonne is directing about half the show’s time-turning seven hours; with fellow executive producer Alex Buono taking on the other half of the season.
* Also on April 9, 2022, it was mentioned how Natasha’s writing and performance in season 2 is really about going deeper,” Poehler said. “The show also goes underground in a really interesting way. Everyone’s going a little under, getting a little deeper, excavating. We’re taking off another layer trying to figure out what that little tiny last piece is”. Moreover, Lyonne referenced the guru Ram Dass’s philosophies. She said the time travel in Russian Doll represents the baggage everyone carries from their past.
* On April 13, 2022, the Netflix Twitter account began to promote the series ahead of its season 2 premiere, by featuring of Nadia's iconic Season 1 lines on a billboard.
	+ Also on this day it was mentioned that for the second season, the series will switch between years and countries...
* On April 15, 2022, one of things that Lyonne confirmed was that Russian Doll was pitch as at least a three-season series.
* On April 18, 2022, a promotional poster for this season was released by the series' twitter account.
	+ Also on this day, Lyonne teased that Season 2 attempts a nuanced and yet oddly more grounded distinction — it’s about the nature of time and how that impacts us in life...
* On April 19, 2022, it was also revealed that the second season is certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes.
* On April 20, 2022, Angela Wildflower posted about she had the honor of being apart of this season in episode 3, in which she played the character of Ethel Sorter.
* On April 21, 2022, how she got Rosie O'Donnell to cameo on the series according to Lyoone, “I just texted her, because we knew we wanted a real New York accent. We were sort of running down the line, we’re like, ‘Rosie Perez, Rosie…Mike Rappaport. Who’s doing this part?'” Lyonne continued. “And so I texted Rosie, and she just would start sending me these little voice memos.”
* On May 8, 2022, Costume designer Jenn Rogien said that she dealt with even more responsibility working on the second season of “Russian Doll.” With the thrust of the season centering on time travel, with stops in the ’40s, ’60s and ’80s, the costume designer was faced with the challenge of finding period-specific clothing while also not accidentally mixing anything up. “It was the best of both worlds where creatively, there were some known elements, but there were a lot of new things to build or create or accomplish,” says Rogien in an exclusive new webchat for Gold Derby. “It kept me on my toes.
* On May 11, 2022, Sevigny said that when it came to filming scenes with Lyonne that she'd "film a scene, and I would watch her on the monitor, and then they would throw me and be like, “OK, now you do Natasha.” It was so much more difficult than I anticipated...I felt like I couldn’t inhabit her in the way that I wanted...It was more about the accent for me. I worked with this great dialect coach, doing it more like a ‘70s accent that we felt like she would have...
* On May 20, 2022, Russian Doll editor Todd Downing, mentioned how in Season 2, given the complexity of the time traveling and body-swapping plot, Downing needed to keep audiences grounded.Thus, he had this process he followed to achieve that grounding through choices of when to edit and when to let a scene play out uninterrupted.
* On May 21, 2022, Russian Doll‘s co-creator and star Natasha Lyonne hosted her first episode of *Saturday Night Live*, speaking in her opening monologue about her aforementioned Netflix series.
* On May 24, 2022, *Russian Doll* made it into the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 for originals for the week of April 18th to 24th. It landed at the Number 8 slot for the premiere of its second season with an estimated 308 million minutes of viewing. Interestingly enough, that show did not rank in the Netflix Top 10 for that week, though Nielsen combines together viewing for all seasons of a show whereas Netflix breaks them out.
* On May 27, 2022, it was revealed how a number of TV series took years off between seasons thanks to production shutdowns (as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic), but according to creatives, that break made their returns even stronger.
* On May 29, 2022, the likes of Natasha Lyonne, Annie Murphy and Alice Ju stunned on the red carpet of Russian Doll in a conversation with Jim Jarmusch special event.

## Production

### Development

In March 2021, production began for this season, starting with Annie Murphy being announced as part of cast for the second season in an undisclosed role and capacity while Carolyn Michelle Smith joined the cast in a recurring role. In April 2021, Sharlto Copley and Ephraim Sykes joined the cast in an undisclosed roles and capacity for the second season.

In addition, Lyonne said about this season that, “In many ways, the achievement of Season 2 and the litmus test is that it’s its own thing that’s an extension of the thing, so that it really kind of makes ‘Russian Doll’ be allowed to be what feels current to us in that room. It allows us to be the owners of it, who can take the most care of it”.

On June 3, 2022, Diane Lederman stepped in as production designer, taking over from Michael Bricker, to build the ’80s world, including Lenora’s pink apartment.Lederman was inspired by a 1986 film directed by David Lynch stating that, “The look of Season 2 is influenced by many films and auteurs of ’70s and ’80s cinema, David Lynch being an important one,” she says. “While searching for a hook for this set, I happened to rewatch ‘Blue Velvet.’ That apartment in that film is iconically 1980s, without being overly kitsch, a perfect reference for our period styling.”

## External links

* Russian Doll on Wikipedia
* Watch Russian Doll on Netflix

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Season 2 of ‘Russian Doll’ promises to be even more Jewish - Times of Israel
2. ↑ Russian Doll season 2 release date: Latest news on time-loop drama - Radio Times
3. ↑ Russian Doll S2 - Netflix Media Center
4. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’ Renewed for Season 2 at Netflix - Variety
5. ↑ Production Of ‘Russian Doll’, ‘Rutherford Falls’ & ‘Little America’ Put On Hold By Uni TV Amid Coronavirus Crisis - Deadline
6. ↑ 'Russian Doll' Season 2: Release Date, Cast, Plot, and Everything We Know So Far - Collider
7. ↑ Chloe Sevigny on 'The Girl From Plainville' and 'Russian Doll' - WNYC
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Natasha Lyonne Explains Why She Loves Conducting the ‘Crazy Train’ of ‘Russian Doll’ Season 2 - Variety
9. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’s Natasha Lyonne & Amy Poehler Talk Going Deeper In Time & Character In Season 2 — Contenders TV - Deadline
10. ↑ Netflix April 13, 2022 Tweet - Twitter
11. ↑ Netflix's Russian Doll is an exquisitely trippy odyssey in season 2 - AV Club
12. ↑ Natasha Lyonne on Her Ride to ‘Russian Doll’ and Telling Her Own Stories - Hollywood Reporter
13. ↑ Russian Doll April 18, 2022 Tweet - Twitter
14. ↑ Natasha Lyonne Shares Some Hints About a Very Different ‘Russian Doll’ Season 2 - TV Insider
15. ↑ Russian Doll April 19, 2022 Tweet - Twitter
16. ↑ Angela Wildflower April 20, 2022 IG Post - Instagram
17. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’ Season 2: Natasha Lyonne Reveals Rosie O’Donnell’s ‘Generous’ Surprise Role - Indiewire
18. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’ costume designer Jenn Rogien on how Season 2 ‘kept me on my toes’ - Goldderby
19. ↑ Chloe Sevigny Discusses Acting Like Natasha Lyonne … Acting Like Chloe Sevigny - Hollywood Reporter
20. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’ Editor Todd Downing, ACE, Dives into One of His Favorite Season 2 Sequences - Awards Daily
21. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’s Natasha Lyonne Lampoons Netflix, Is Impersonated By Maya Rudolph & Fred Armisen In ‘SNL’ Monologue
22. ↑ Cancellation Watch: Russian Doll Makes It Into the Nielsen Streaming Top 10, Fear the Walking Dead Slips, and More - Cancelled Sci-fi
23. ↑ ‘Atlanta,’ ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ and ‘Russian Doll’ EPs on the Benefits of a Pandemic-Forced Hiatus - Hollywood Reporter
24. ↑ Natasha Lyonne puts on a leggy display in black minidress as she's joined by Schitt's Creek star Annie Murphy at Russian Doll event in NYC - Daily Mail
25. ↑ Annie Murphy Joins Russian Doll as Production on Season 2 Begins - TV Line
26. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’: Sharlto Copley Joins Season 2 Of Netflix Series - Deadline
27. ↑ ‘Russian Doll’: Ephraim Sykes Joins Season 2 Of Netflix Series - Deadline
28. ↑ Natasha Lyonne Reveals Original ‘Russian Doll’ Season 2 Plans and Why She Kind of Digs ‘Bizarro Duality’ of Fan Reaction - Variety
29. ↑ How David Lynch Inspired ‘Russian Doll’ Set Design - Variety