It’s Tiffany Haddish’s Afterparty and she can do what she wants to! The Afterparty season 2 has been renewed by Apple TV Plus, so more comedy/murder mystery hijinks await. Haddish will reprise her role as Detective Danner, but what about the rest of The Afterparty cast? Well, we just learned more about that.
The series comes from executive producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, and created and directed by Miller. Season 1 begins with a murder at the afterparty of a high school reunion. Each episode is told from a different character’s perspective in a different genre, ranging from psychological thriller to musical to animation.
The season 1 finale wrapped up the story by revealing the killer, so it’s likely that season 2 will feature a brand-new case investigated by Haddish. That falls in line with other murder mysteries Knives Out 2 (which brings back Daniel Craig as Detective Benoit Blanc) and White Lotus season 2 (only Jennifer Coolidge returns from the original cast).
Here’s everything you need to know about The Afterparty season 2.
The Afterparty season 2 release date speculation
Apple TV Plus has not set The Afterparty season 2 release date yet.
The streaming service just renewed the series on March 2, so it may be some time before production on season 2 gets started. Miller and Lord are an exceedingly busy producing duo. They are currently working on the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel for December, as well as a number of other projects like a reboot of Clone High and Project Hail Mary with Ryan Gosling.
Even if someone else takes charge of showrunning The Afterparty season 2, and Miller hands off directorial duties, script writing and filming could take months. Our best guess is that season 2 doesn’t premiere until mid- to late 2023.
The Afterparty season 2 cast
The only confirmed The Afterparty season 2 cast member is Tiffany Haddish, who will reprise her role as Detective Danner. That said, The Afterparty creator Chris Miller told Variety that “There will be returning actors beyond Tiffany and a whole bunch of new folks as well.” So
That means potential returning cast members could include Sam Richardson as Aniq, Zoë Chao as Zoë, Ike Barinholtz as Brett, Ilana Glazer as Chelsea, Jamie Demetriou as Walt, John Early as Danner’s partner Detective Culp and Reid Scott as Danner’s nemesis Detective Germain. Ben Schwartz as Yasper is probably the least likely returning cast member who’s still potentially available.
While Dave Franco — murder victim Xavier — is less likely to return, we could see more of Xavier through his music videos that weren’t seen in season 1.
Otherwise, we expect season 2 to welcome mostly new faces, similar to what Knives Out 2 and The White Lotus season 2 are doing.
The Afterparty season 2 plot and season 1 ending explained
The Afterparty season 2 will probably see Danner tackling a new case at the afterparty of some other event, because the season 1 murder mystery was solved and the killer revealed.
The finale, titled “Maggie,” brought forth an unexpected witness: the titular daughter of Zoe and Brett. The little girl recounted her evening to Danner, which included drawing the cat face on Aniq and seeing Jennifer #2 wet herself (her water broke, so she went to the hospital).
Maggie’s account fills in a few missing pieces for Danner, who declares she knows who the killer is. It’s Aniq, Brett or Walt. But Walt was in the bathroom planning his streaking adventure. Aniq speaks up to admit he saw Brett in the driveway at the time of the murder. Ready to face the music, Aniq realizes that every telling of the story mentioned the closet was closed. But when he went to check the drawings on his face, it was open.
Something had been hiding in there … and it was Yasper! He was bitter that Xavier was famous and also that he didn’t bless Yasper’s track. So, he decided to get revenge by killing Xavier, stealing the song and releasing it as a posthumous duet.
When Yasper brings up his texts with Xavier, as proof that they were friends, Danner notes the A/V guy could’ve easily gotten the dead pop star’s password. Aniq then realizes that Yasper could’ve used Xavier’s phone to delete the security footage. When the phone is found in Yasper’s pocket, he’s busted.
Danner crows about her triumph to her captain and to her nemesis, Detective Germain. Meanwhile, Aniq and Zoe head out to breakfast. When she pulls over to the side of the road, she asks if he’s ever going to make a move. They kiss … only to be interrupted by Walt, who meekly asks for a ride home.
With the case closed, and Yasper seemingly bound for prison, this afterparty is clearly over. But another one may be on the horizon for Danner. Where will her next case take her? Perhaps a tech giant holiday shindig or a post-music festival rager? Or maybe she’ll get one up on Germain and head to Hollywood for an awards show afterparty.