Luke Macfarlane Teases ‘Jeopardy!’s Role in Charlie’s ‘Midlife Crisis’ Ahead of ‘Platonic’ Season 2 (Exclusive)

What is — Platonic Season 2?

Ahead of the Apple TV+ show’s return on Aug. 6, actor Luke Macfarlane opened up to PopCulture.com about how Jeopardy! plays into the next chapter of his character Charlie’s story, as showrunners Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller revealed how Season 2 ended up “more off-kilter” than they ever imagined.

Season 2 of the comedy picks back up with best friends Will (Seth Rogen) and Sylvia (Rose Byrne) as they navigate new midlife hurdles, including work, weddings and the “midlife crisis” of Sylvia’s husband Charlie.

“I think in the first season, Charlie was kind of reacting a lot to what he was seeing happening with his wife and his wife’s best friend,” Macfarlane told PopCulture. “This season, I think Charlie gets to kind of be a bit more of a cause of the trouble.”

While Macfarlane can’t reveal too much about Charlie’s “midlife crisis,” he did share that his Jeopardy! appearance plays an important role. “I don’t want to give too much away about what happens on Jeopardy!, but it leads to a midlife crisis,” he teased.

As for Macfarlane himself, the Jeopardy! crossover in Season 2 was a “total dream,” as he’s been a major fan of the game show since he was a kid. “Ken Jennings [is a] national treasure. Oh my gosh, what a pleasure to meet him,” he gushed. “Turns out [he’s] a very funny actor too. He’s got some pretty funny bits in our show, so look out for that.”

Co-creators/showrunners Delbanco and Stoller told PopCulture that the dynamic shift between Sylvia and Charlie was part of the reason they had “so much fun” writing Season 2 of Platonic.

“I really loved being able to explore the way her dynamic with her husband has to change based on some decisions that he makes and stuff that’s going on in his life,” Delbanco said. “Because I think that one of the things the show is about is middle age. And I think that people are going through the paces of their lives and don’t necessarily expect any crazy curveballs or things to change in the way that Sylvia’s life does. So it was really fun to see her marriage kind of have this shifting ground underneath it — and not in ways that you would expect at the beginning of the season, hopefully.”

Delbanco and Stoller had originally conceived of Platonic as an anthology series following a different pair of friends each season, so the unexpected return to Will and Sylvia’s story opened up a whole new realm of possibility.

“We had to come back in and think, ‘What can we undo here? What stories are still left to tell?’” Delbanco said of the discussions surrounding Season 2. “I think that we felt the challenge of not having everything on the table really led us to a season that was a little bit weirder and more off-kilter than it might have been if we had mapped out everything about the arc of the series beforehand.”

“It was a little bit scary at times,” she admitted, “but I think we ended up really liking it and really liking all of the weird left turns the season takes that might not have been in the original architecture for the series [if] we had known.”

Platonic Season 2 premieres on Wednesday, Aug. 6, on Apple TV+.