‘Atlanta’: Donald Glover & Zazie Beetz Explain Season 3’s ‘Black Fairytale’
Atlanta is finally returning. And Donald Glover has explained the goals of Atlanta Season 3’s storyline at the FX show’s SXSW premiere on Sunday, March 20, as well as giving a simple explanation for why Atlanta is ending with Season 4.
“All good things end,” he said on the premiere’s red carpet, per Variety. “It felt like it was time to end. I don’t like it when people [are] 40 pretending like they’re 15 and s**t. It’s annoying.”
Season 2 concluded with Earnest “Earn” Marks (Glover), his cousin Alfred/Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), and Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) heading to Amsterdam for Alfred’s rap tour. Atlanta Seasons 3 and 4 were shot back-to-back, with Season 3 mostly taking place in Europe. Glover explained the change of location, saying the series isn’t entirely dependent on where the story is happening.
“It’s our point of view; it’s not really about the place,” he said. “Although in Season 4, it makes a very heavy resurgence, as far as the actual place. Atlanta is a state of mind. Europe solidified how we felt [while writing] Season 3. [Director Hiro Murai] calls it our maximum season.”
“Atlanta is everywhere and nowhere,” Glover’s brother, Atlanta writer and producer Stephen Glover, said.
Zazie Beetz stars in the series as Vanessa “Van” Keefer, Earn’s on-and-off lover and mother of their child. Glover said Van’s story was a big focus of the upcoming season.
“It’s a very honest season,” Beetz noted. “All of the characters are out of their element, which allows things to rise to the surface that you would otherwise be able to, in habits and in comfort, suppress. And here, you can’t, because you have nothing to catch you. It’s a lot of truth and reflections of where we’re all at as ourselves and as people — as me, as Zazie.”
Don’t expect to see much of Van, Earn, Darius, and Alfred in the Atlanta Season 3 premiere, though. The episode, titled “Three Slaps,” reportedly focuses on a boy named Loquareeous (Christopher Farrar) and features a reimagined telling of the death of Devonte Hart. The episode also features recreations of viral internet videos.
“I like to describe Atlanta as a group thread in real life. We’re just s**tting a group text thread,” writer and producer Stefani Robinson said of the episode’s funnier video recreations. “We’re just cobbling together internet videos that make us laugh.”
“We just wanted to make a black fairytale,” Glover added. “I remember sitting in the writers’ room and being like, ‘What do we write about?’ We just wanted to do short stories. Something I would want to watch.”
And Glover still very much feels this season will be something fans will want to watch. In 2020, the actor said Atlanta Seasons 3 and 4 are so good, only The Sopranos could compete with them. He has since deleted the tweet, but addressed it at the March 20 premiere.
“I talk my s**t on the internet,” he said. “I said Sopranos and s**t. I’m not backing down from that s**t. I’m holding my nuts out on that s**t. I just want [audiences] to know this s**t is good. It’s high quality s**t. I hope you can have cursing [in your story].”
Atlanta, Season 3 Premiere, Thursday, March 24, 10 pm ET, FX
