When the credits rolled at the Lumiere Theatre Monday evening following the debut of Sam Levinson’s The Idol, the loudest and heartiest cheer was handed to actor Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
Randolph, best known for her work on Hulu’s High Fidelity remake, plays Destiny, the confidante to Lily-Rose Depp’s doomed pop star Jocelyn in the HBO series. The series will unspool over five roughly 50-minute episodes from June 4, but speaking at Deadline’s Cannes studio, Randolph said she believes there’s scope for the show to expand.
“I absolutely think there’s a season two. I’m not saying it’s official, but there’s definitely a whole vast world that could be developed,” she said.
She added: “Absolutely, I’d come back for season two.”
Co-created by Levinson, Abel ‘The Weeknd’ Tesfaye, and Reza Fahim, The Idol is set against the backdrop of the music industry in Los Angeles. The show follows a female pop singer (Depp) who starts a romance with an enigmatic L.A. club owner (Tesfaye), the leader of a secret cult. With a high-profile cast and the first extensive screen performance from Tesfaye, The Idol has been one of the most buzzed-about shows of the year. The show made headlines in March, while still in production, following a Rolling Stone exposé that claimed the series was in turmoil due to a poor working environment and last-minute script rewrites alongside budgetary issues, all of which were denied by producers HBO and A24.
The Idol also underwent a creative overhaul, with series director Amy Seimetz exiting. As Deadline reported at the time, the crux of the issue appeared to be that Tesfaye felt the show was leaning too much into a “female perspective,” according to sources, with co-star Lily-Rose Depp’s character rather than his own.
“The way the world is now if you’re getting that much buzz and it’s not even out yet — that is the best press you can get,” Randolph said of the reports about The Idol set. “If nothing else, people are going to watch it.”
Randolph added that her experience on the set “wasn’t like that.”
“I wouldn’t even be a part of no mess like that,” she said. “So for me, I just let people think what they think. But I was excited. We’re not even out yet, and people are getting worked up.”
In addition to Randolph, Tesfaye, and Depp, the cast includes Suzanna Son, Troye Sivan, Moses Sumney, Jane Adams, Dan Levy, Jennie Ruby Jane, Eli Roth, Rachel Sennot, Hari Nef, Mike Dean, and South Korean artist Jennie Kim.
Check out the full studio interview above and follow Deadline’s complete coverage of the deals and doings on the Croisette here.