‘Elsbeth’ Showrunner Jonathan Tolins Teases ‘More Surprises’ for Season 2 (Exclusive)

Season 2 of Elsbeth is set to premiere on Thursday, Oct. 17 and showrunner Jonathan Tolins spoke to PopCulture.com about what’s in store. The upcoming season of the CBS breakout hit will kick off with an opera-themed episode guest-starring Nathan Lane, but there is much more to look forward to. The series will see the aftermath of the D.O.J. investigation into Captain Wagner and Lieutenant Noonan’s firing, meaning that the NYPD will likely be completely different environment.

Meanwhile, now that the show is in its second season, there is much to explore, and with 20 episodes, there will surely be a lot to touch on. Check out what Tolins had to say about Elsbeth Season 2 while speaking with PopCulture. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity).

PopCulture: What can you tell me about Season 2 of Elsbeth?

Jonathan Tolins: We’re trying to build on what we started in Season 1. We have fabulous guest stars coming. We’ve added a few characters and complications to Elsbeth’s life in New York. We have some things that happened in her career life in Chicago, and we’re gonna find out what led her to change her whole life and come to New York. We’re building on what we did, finding more great roles, segments of New York’s society to explore, we’re having a good time.And we’re also doing a lot more playing with the form. So for people who think that it’s always you see the murderer, you know who it is. There are gonna be more and more surprises and sort of variations on that format. So not in the first episode, I should say.

PC: What can you tell us about the first episode?

Tolins: Well, the first episode takes place in the world of opera, and I happen to be an opera fanatic. I’ve been going to the opera for 50 years. I’m a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz, so when I got this job, a lot of people said, “Oh, are you gonna do an opera murder?” And I made it through the first season without doing one. Another thing I will say is at the end of every episode, you see the logo for my production company, Nemorino Productions, it’s a cartoon drawing of a little boy sitting in red theater seats so that really is me going to the opera for the first time when I was seven years old.

And the name of my company is Nemorino Productions. Nemorino is the name of the main character from the opera L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love), which was the first opera I saw. Obviously, it’s very important to me. I’ve always wanted to do an episode of TV about opera that didn’t get any of the details wrong. So, for people who really know this stuff. The music that is describing things in the murder is actually the same music that does it in an opera. All of the references when you hear someone singing over on a recording, and you say who it is, it is that person. So it should be a lot of fun for people who care about this stuff and for everybody else, too, because I think audiences can always tell when you’re getting things right.

PC: Going back to Elsbeth, with her assignment with the D.O.J. seemingly in the past now and her staying with the NYPD, what can we expect from her for Season 2 as far as her relationships and her job go?

Tolins: She is now in Noonan’s old office,which you got at the end of last season. But Noonan is replaced by a new lieutenant who actually would love to get that office, and that’s the why, you know when this stuff happens that comes back from her past. It’s a wrinkle that makes her afraid that the job she started to put together for herself may be in jeopardy.

PC: Captain Wagner, for obvious reasons, wasn’t much of a fan of Elsbeth towards the end of the season because of what she was involved in. What will that look like now and how the aftermath of the investigation is affecting him?

Tolins: In the finale, he kind of came around to recognize things to deal with in terms of the morale and the precinct after Noonan, who was beloved by the other officers, is gone and dealing with this new lieutenant, who is Daniel Isaac, and people may know from Billions. So, we like to keep throwing complications and surprises to our characters.

PC: Last season, Kaya was stuck between a rock and a hard place with the whole investigation. But she proved herself to not only be a loyal friend, but a loyal officer. Is there a promotion in her future at all?

Tolins: I hope so for her sake. I know at the end of last season, she was put on the fast track. That fast track may have some bumps in the road. I don’t wanna say too much, but we certainly hope that, eventually, she will achieve her dream of being a detective.

PC: Is there anything that you’re excited to explore in Season 2 now that Elsbeth has really gotten off the ground?

Tolins: Yes. We are bringing in some other characters who are important to her. We are also bringing in a villain who will last beyond one episode, which I’m excited about. And mostly, we’ve just been given this incredible playpen to write stories and murder mysteries that touch on things that we find absurd about life now in New York or things that are just interesting to us. So we’re very lucky. In the writers’ room, we say all the time we are fully aware with how lucky we are to have these jobs, working on a show that’s on the air and doing pretty well, and with these incredible actors and getting to work with these amazing guest artists that we managed to lure in week after week.

PC: What else can you tease about Season 2?

Tolins: We have incredible guest stars and there’s one character that people have been asking, “Will we ever meet that character?” and the answer is, “Yeah, I think so.”

Elsbeth Season 2 premieres on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.