‘Platonic’ co-creators Nicholas Stoller and Francesca Delbanco talk season 2, their creative process, and getting to enjoy the show’s release without a strike.
“We share a comic language,” Stoller says of working with Seth Rogen. “We both want comedy to come from character. We both like awkward situations.”
“We’re thrilled to be able to talk about the show and celebrate it,” Delblanco says of being able to properly celebrate season 2 of ‘Platonic.’
After quietly premiering ‘Platonic’ season one during the WGA strike, creators Nicholas Stoller and Francesca Delbanco are celebrating the show’s return. In this candid conversation, they discuss how the series was filmed like a movie, Stoller’s longtime creative bond with Seth Rogen, and what season two explores about adult friendship. They also reflect on lessons from Judd Apatow, the thrill of filming a ‘Jeopardy’ episode, and what it’s like working with Apple as a creative partner. And yes—Stoller jokes about a $400 million Kool-Aid movie.
Co-created, directed, and co-written by Nick Stoller and Francesca Delbanco, the second season of Platonic follows best friends Will (Seth Rogen) and Sylvia (Rose Byrne) as they navigate fresh challenges in midlife, from career pressures to weddings and relationship troubles. While they strive to support each other through it all, even the strongest bonds can sometimes cause cracks.
The 10-episode sophomore season of ‘Platonic’ premieres globally on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, August 6, 2025 with the first two episodes. New episodes will premiere weekly through October 1, 2025.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to talk with you. How are you doing?
Francesca Delbanco: Good! Nice to talk to you, too.
Nicholas Stoller: Nice to talk to you.
AF: The first season premiered during the WGA strike. How does it feel to be able to properly celebrate the launch of season 2?
Delbanco: It’s so exciting! Thank you for asking that question. We’re so thrilled to be able to talk about the show and celebrate it. It was a bummer to release it at a time where no one could do that. We’re thrilled.
Stoller: We released it in like an ashamed way, like we weren’t supposed to. We were like, I don’t know.
Delbanco: But we’re excited to have our cast be out there and to be able to talk about the show and hopefully get eyeballs on it and stuff like that.
AF: Between ‘You’re Cordially Invited’ and Seth Rogen having a pretty busy schedule between starring in ‘The Studio’ and ‘Platonic,’ when did you all find time to film season 2?
Stoller: We did it last—
Delbanco: We filmed it basically August, September, October, and part of November 2024. We filmed it here in Los Angeles. We filmed it kind of in one straight shot. It’s almost like a movie, the way we shoot it. We write it all first and then we shoot it all, which isn’t the usual process of a TV show, but it’s what works for us.
Stoller: We do something we would call—I mean, you might be familiar with cross-boarding, where we’ll be shooting pieces of episodes, all out of order. But it was kind of fun. When we were shooting, Seth had finished shooting ‘The Studio’ and would come and show us clips of ‘The Studio’ and these crazy oners that he had shot. That was exciting to get to see that stuff.
Delbanco: Yeah, he was editing it.
Stoller: He was editing it, yeah.
Delbanco: It was fun.
AF: Nick, you’ve known Seth for 25 years, How has the shorthand evolved in your professional relationship?
Stoller: I met him when he was 18. I instantly knew he was one of the funniest people I’d ever met. We both worked on the writing staff of the show called ‘Undeclared’ that Judd Apatow produced. He and I shared an office on that show. I just immediately loved him.
We share a comic language. We both find very similar things funny. We both want comedy to come from character. We both like awkward situations. I don’t know. We’re kind of interested in a lot of the same stuff comedically.
He’s just also one of the loveliest humans ever. I’ve watched him become a big movie star, a big producer and stuff, and he’s always been kind of exactly the same guy. None of it has really changed him,. I feel very lucky to have met him.
AF: What’s one of the biggest lessons you’ve taken from working with Judd Apatow?
Stoller: With Judd, I mean, he’s a big mentor figure of mine. I’ve worked with him on a bunch of movies. The most recent one was ‘Bros,’ which he produced.
I think it’s similar stuff that he and I—we would talk about with Seth, too, of just comedy coming from character. Making sure your story is inherently a dramatic story. The story and characters aren’t inherently funny. The tone is funny and you have jokes, set pieces, and whatnot, but the story you’re telling needs needs to be serious, it needs to be real, it needs to be honest.
It’s really trying to get to the honesty of what you’re trying to say is really the key to making anything super funny.
AF: After getting the green light for season two, what were you all looking to explore in the story that you didn’t include in season one?
Delbanco: Well, season one really is a story of, will these two be able to make their friendship work and last, and will they be able to stay in each other’s lives as grown-ups, the way that they were so much in each other’s lives in their younger years before they were married, etc.
And so, season two, they are friends, that has been established. It’s sort of a question of both of their lives—can they help each other with the kind of biggest challenges that they’re facing, and stay in each other’s lives in a way that feels productive and sustainable in a long-term way?
I would say that the show—in season one and season two—a lot of it’s about middle age, and the challenges of middle age, and some of the disappointments about it, and they have very separate lives, different kinds of lives as characters, but they really are able to help each other through the big stuff that’s going on for both of them.
So in this season, they have a whole new set of challenges, but they’re in it with each other, I would say.
AF: Was there ever a Plan B if ‘Jeopardy’ fell through?
Delbanco: (Laughs)
Stoller: We did not have a Plan B.
Delbanco: We were going to have to think of a whole new story. Luckily, both ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘Platonic’ are Sony productions, so we were very lucky in that department because if it hadn’t been Jeopardy—
Stoller: It needed to be a game show where you needed skill, not a luck-based game show. Most of them are more luck-based, and so we did not have a Plan B. We would have probably had to come up with a different idea to make that story turn happen. But they were very—in addition to being owned by the same company, ‘Jeopardy,’ the producers, and Ken Jennings were very excited to do this. They thought it would be really funny.
Delbanco: We were all also completely starstruck when we went to ‘Jeopardy.’ Everyone in the cast, everyone in the crew, we got to shoot on their real stages. We got to meet Ken Jennings, who is in the show. For everyone who was working on ‘Platonic,’ we were all like (inaudible) when we got there. That’s pretty neat.
AF: Has Apple greenlit a Kool-Aid movie yet or should we expect that to come from a different studio?
Stoller: Look, we’re shopping around the Kool-Aid movie right now. We have a really good good package. I don’t want to say who some of the actors are we’ve attached, but it’s exciting. It’s has a $400 million budget, which is crazy. I’m excited though. I’m excited to get in there and create a Kool-Aid world.
AF: That was one of my favorite parts of watching season one of ‘The Studio.‘
Stoller: It was really fun to get to do.
AF: How collaborative has Apple been as a partner on ‘Platonic’?
Delbanco: I mean, it has been a dream for us. They really support the show and they really give us great notes creatively. In the writing process, we have a creative team that helps us with the show and gives us their thoughts and they trust us a lot.
If there’s something that they feel like isn’t working, we will explain what we’re trying to do and they will help us come up with ways to make it work as opposed to saying, “No, we forbid you from doing this.” We’ll say, “Okay, well, here’s where we feel like we need to see it more on the page.” We find that their notes really make the story work a lot of the times.
And then in terms of the actual production of the show, they’re just incredibly supportive. We get to shoot it here in LA, which is often not the case, but the show really is an LA story and it’s really specifically set here and they have accommodated that. We feel very lucky. Their shows are good.
AF: Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you, Nick. It’s good to see you again.
Stoller: Nice to see you, too.
Delbanco: Thank you.
Stoller: Thanks so much.