Beef was one of the best shows of 2023 (with the best Hoobastank needle drop of the decade). It won eight Emmys, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, and more impressively, usurped the meat at the top of the Google results for “beef.”
What does creator Lee Sung Jin have in store for a follow up? Let’s find out.
Here’s everything we know about Netflix‘s Beef season 2, including the plot and star-studded cast.
Plot
Beef season 1 kicked off with a road-rage incident between Steven Yeun’s Danny and Ali Wong’s Amy. The inciting event in season 2?
“A young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife, triggering chess moves of favors and coercion in the elitist world of a country club and its Korean billionaire owner.”
It’s all new characters, as we’ll get to in the cast section, but is there a chance the seasons are connected? Or that Danny and Amy might pop up again?
“Of course those thoughts have crossed my mind,” Beef creator Lee Sung Jin told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “It’s fun to think about, but it’s hard to say because writing often feels like you’re channeling something bigger than yourself, and the story almost starts to have a life of its own and you’re chasing the thing that wants to be told.”
He continued, “For example, in season 1 the real road rage incident was with a white male driver, and instead of following it literally, the story led us in a different direction. For season 2, it’s hard to even imagine whether it’s the same universe until we really start to excavate and see what wants to rear its head. And then we’ll chase it, and if that includes the same universe or some fun little callback, great, but that would be ornamental to all of it. I really need to look into the abyss and see what’s staring back first.”
Lee also shared that it isn’t hard to find inspiration for stories about people being mad at each other. “I’m constantly writing stuff down in my Notes app, weird interactions I have in my life or things I observe, and Lord knows there’s plenty of beef out there in the world,” he said. “There’s so much that I want to explore, but this awards season has been pretty nonstop, so I’m excited [to] look hard in the mirror and start observing myself and some uncomfortable things about my own psyche and then dive back into something.”
Cast
Beef has landed some big names for season 2: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, Cailee Spaeny, and Youn Yuh-jung. That’s one Oscar winner (Youn), one Oscar nominee (Mulligan), and three Oscar snubs (Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis; Melton for May December; and Spaeny for Priscilla). It’s unknown at this time who they’re playing, but Melton called the scripts “some of the best stuff I’ve ever read.”
Release Date
Season 2 of Beef will consist of eight 30-minute episodes, but no premiere date has been announced yet.
Trailer
If you were hoping for a Beef season 2 trailer, you’re out of luck. As a consolation prize, please enjoy Steven Yeun and Ali Wong being delightful.
