On December 22, HBO Max premieres season two of this psychological thriller created by Ran Tellem, directed by Jorge Dorado and produced by The Mediapro Studio.
Point Nemo is an area in the South Pacific so far from land that often the closest humans are space station astronauts. And it is precisely in this inaccessible environment, aboard a massive ocean freighter, that biologist Arthur Wilde (John Lynch) is carrying out a crucial mission in the fight against climate change. That is until, once more, various macabre murders take place, turning the mission into a type of ‘every man for himself’ quest for survival. And thus The Head, a psychological thriller created by Ran Tellem and produced by The Mediapro Studio in association with Hulu Japan, returns for a second season – “very different, more physical and with more depth” – dropping on December 22 on HBO Max in both Spain and the United States.
“We made the first season to be complete in itself, we didn’t think there would be a second one. It was after it was so successful, especially in the US, France and Japan, that the possibility of continuing the series was floated,” shares Jorge Dorado, director of the six new episodes. “This time, the story and the way we are telling it are very different. There are no longer just two characters sharing their version of what’s happening, instead they are all narrators, so we have 20 different points of view. This gives the series more depth and allows us to explore everyone’s dreams and ambitions. It’s still a psychological thriller, but the action scenes are more powerful,” explains Tellem, executive producer together with Laura Fdz. Espeso, Javier Méndez, Bernat Elias and Mariano Baselga. Baselga this time also heads up the writers’ room, where the team, also including Jordi Galcerán, Isaac Sastre and Cauê Laratta, took up the baton from the Pastor brothers, who penned the first season. “Having new writers allowed us to explore uncharted waters. When you make a series based on the same concept, you run the risk of repeating yourself,” says Dorado.
John Lynch leads a lineup where the only other original cast member back for season two is Katharine O’Donnelly, to the chagrin of his character. New onboard The Head 2 are about twenty actors of ten different nationalities, among them Olivia Morris, Hovik Keuchkerian, Moe Dunford, Enrique Arce, Josefin Neldén, Thierry Godard and Sota Fukushi. “It’s the series that I most enjoy casting because I have the whole world to explore. It’s amazing. For season one, English was the priority language and we had Danish and Swedish as secondary ones, but this time we wanted it to be Spanish,” the director shares. “For me, mixing different schools of acting and personalities is also part of the DNA of the series. So Jorge can be less Luis Enrique and more Guardiola,” Tellem jokes.
To be continued?
“It was quite a surprise to come back,” says Lynch. Especially with the pandemic hitting between the first and second shoots. “Lockdown was more relaxing for me than it was for the characters,” he says, with some irony. “Just imagine, I was in Ireland, where we could only travel within 20km of home, and all of a sudden I’m spending 12 weeks in the Canary Islands on a shoot with incredible people from all over the world,” adds Dunford.
To understand the chains of command and how hard life aboard a freighter is, even without a murderer on the loose, Jorge Dorado gave out a book about a woman who spends months at sea on a large ship, explains Keuchkerian, who plays Charlie, a very unique character with an intellectual disability, “who is like a big boy.” Furthermore, the series was filmed on a real ship.
With an ending “open to interpretation,” as a smiling Morris describes it, it’s hard not to hope for a third season of The Head. “We’d like to keep going with it. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to do one more season,” says Tellem.
