EXCLUSIVE: Here’s the trailer for Season 2 of Apple TV‘s German dark comedy Where’s Wanda?.
The sophomore season starring Heike Makatsch (Love Actually), Axel Stein (The Vault), Lea Drinda (The Gryphon), Leo Simon and and Nikeata Thompson (Späti) debuts globally on October 21, and this is the exclusive trailer ahead of the launch. Episodes will drop weekly through December 9, as previous announced.
The UFA Fiction German-language comedy-drama picks up after the events of the first season, which saw Carlotta and Dedo Klatt (Makatsch and Stein) searching for their lost daughter Wanda (Drinda). As the season opens, Wanda is seemingly caught red-handed standing over a dead body and is hauled off to jail.
Carlotta and Dedo have to do everything in their power to prove her innocence and avoid losing her again, with their investigation taking them to the heart of their sleepy suburban town, Sundersheim.
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In the trailer we see a shaken Wanda in jail. The scene morphs back to the murder scene, as Wanda finds a body dead backstage at a funfair. As the curtains pull back, she is revealed standing over the corpse with a bloodied trophy in her hands as the audience gasps. From there, her parents hatch their crazy plan to set her free and reveal the killer.
“We end Season 1 with Wanda returning to her family, which is a great relief for them,” said Where’s Wanda? exec producer Nataly Kudiabor in an exclusive interview. “We had already announced that Wanda will be in prison in Season 2, and that has a huge impact on the family,” she said. “They have just got their daughter back, and now they have to deal with what this will do to them.
“It also affects the family’s position in Sundersheim. What are the neighbours thinking? What do the people in Sundersheim think? Is it right that their daughter is in prison? There are a lot of questions being asked.”
Sam Riley, Alexandra Maria Lara, Harriet Herbig-Matten, Gisa Flake, David Schütter, Palina Rojinski Suzanne von Borsody, Kostja Ullmann, Devid Striesow, Frederic Balonier, Sascha Geršak, Torben Liebrecht , Aaron Maldonado-Morales and Anton Dreger are also cast in Season 2.
Oliver Lansley created, written and executive produced season 2, alongside UFA Fiction co-Managing Director and executive producer Nataly Kudiabor and Oliver Ossege. The series was co-created and based on a story by Zoltan Spirandelli, though he was not involved in Season 2, we understand. Tobi Baumann and Christian Ditter.
We sat down for an exclusive interview with Kudiabor this week, who said Drinda’s titular character would be far more present in Season 2.
“We always felt that Wanda was the heart of the show, so we wanted her to return and to give her more screen time,” she said. “Lea Drinda is a fantastic actress, and this time she isn’t hidden away for several episodes – she is there from the beginning.”
Kudiabor revealed there would be “surprises” for the audience. “We love our surprises. For example, new neighbours move in: the Kimballs, played by Sam Riley and Alexandra Maria Lara, who are internationally known. They are a couple in real life, and we cast them as a couple in the show, which I think was a great idea. They bring a new layer to the series.”
She added there would be “more twists and turns,” saying: “Oliver is very good at leading the audience in one direction and then revealing something unexpected from another side. There are also lots of interesting new characters in Sundersheim whom audiences haven’t seen before.”
Kudiabor said that if Season 1 was about “the search, the neighbours and everything people were hiding in Sundersheim,” Season 2 was about “what the crisis is doing to the family and how they rebuild afterwards.”
Working with Apple TV
Where’s Wanda? was the first German-language original to come from Apple TV, with the likes of Constellation and Berlin ER following later. Prior to the show’s launch, there was a feeling within the German television production community that the global streamer’s future in Germany hinged on its success, with several privately voicing the opinion to Deadline at the time.
The Season 2 renewal was validation the dark comedy had cut through, and Kudiabor praised the collaborative nature of Apple’s execs, with UFA Fiction in regular communication with Jay Hunt’s London office throughout the process. She noted that having an English writer in Lansley was “really helpful” to the flow of the development.
“We were very excited to make Apple TV+’s first German original,” she said. “It’s great to work for a streamer with so many excellent shows. I’m a big fan of Apple’s productions, and quality is very important to them.
“They always challenge us to do our best in terms of storytelling and production value, and it’s a great experience to be challenged and to keep getting better. Sometimes you think you know best, but ultimately it’s teamwork.”
She compared the first mover experience to that of Wiedemann & Berg when it made Dark as Netflix’s debut German original.
“If you’re the first show in a market for a streamer, you have to learn how to work together,” said Kudiabor. “I imagine it was a similar experience for Netflix when it made Dark. In the second season, the process was extremely nice and easy because we already knew each other and understood how things worked. There was a lot of trust in us, which was really nice.”
German market in flux
UFA Fiction, known for the likes of the Deutschland and Ku’damm franchises, has been on a roll over recent years, with Wanda? and Prime Video YA smash Maxton Hall – The World Between Us driving its streamer slate, with the likes of Disney+ miniseries Sam – A Saxon and Netflix movie Rising High also cutting through.
However, the Fremantle-owned company could be seen as an outlier in the German production market. Last week at Seriesly Berlin, much of the chatter was about a general lack of funding outside of the global streamers, and whether international co-production could fill the gaps. With the likes of Sky Deutschland exiting the originals market in the past half-decade, things remain tough.
“Streamers and commissioners are flooded with good ideas,” said Kudiabor. “What do you need to stand out? We’re really trying to work on that. I’m not saying we achieve it all the time, but we’re giving it our best, and perhaps our work shows that this approach is working for us.”
She attributed UFA’s hot streak on “a mixture of luck, timing, having the right talent and finding the right story,” and hinted at several upcoming projects.
“At the moment, we’re working for Amazon, with two shows launching there,” she said. “We’re working with Disney and have some developments with them, and we’ve just worked with Apple. We’re also working with HBO, so there are a lot of opportunities.
“But it’s also about excellence. We’re challenging ourselves to ask, before we go out: Is this really the best story we have? Is this the best talent? Is there something else we can do before we go shopping?”
Kudiabor admitted the success of Maxton Hall, which became Prime Video’s most-watched international original series.
“The first season was amazing, but I don’t think we expected such sensational success,” she said. “I loved the second season, but wait for the third – it’s even more mind-blowing. The fans are so engaged and give their feedback through social media, which is crazy. Our main actors are now big stars, and it’s really a ride.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment. When you go to the premieres, it feels like a real event: The fans are going crazy and they really want to be part of it.”
As for the future, Kudiabor said UFA Fiction will look to work with more production companies across the Fremantle group, as TV consolidated giants look to use their assets to create co-productions.
“I’ve been speaking with colleagues in the Netherlands, for example, because our markets are quite similar and they have great shows coming out there,” said Kudiabor. “We recently had a meeting here to look for a project we could make together, so we want to develop something jointly. We’re also speaking with some UK companies.”
Meanwhile, UFA Fiction is hoping Apple sees a long-term future for Where’s Wanda?. “Creatively, we have lots of ideas, but of course I can’t speak for Apple,” said Kudiabor. “Right now, we’re just happy to be returning for a second season. We hope to excite the viewers, and then we’ll take it from there.”
