‘Hunters’ Creator on How Al Pacino’s Meyer Still Plays a Role in Season 2
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Hunters is back for its second and final chapter, and with it comes the return of Al Pacino‘s Meyer Offerman. But how, you might ask?
Series creator David Weil is offering some clarity ahead of the premiere noting the parallel stories being told in Season 2. For those who remember tuning into Season 1, the big twist ending revealed that Pacino’s character wasn’t in fact Jonah’s (Logan Lerman) long-lost grandfather, but the Nazi who killed the real Meyer in the Holocaust, Wilhelm “The Wolf” Zuchs.
Shooting him to death, Jonah walked away and it was implied he’d carry on with the vigilantism that “Meyer” had introduced him to, killing Nazis in hiding. But there’s more to Wilhelm’s story according to Weil who says, “the Meyer character is incredibly complex and fascinating, and getting to work with Al Pacino is a dream. It was sort of the natural progression to go back in time with his story and see how his actions in the past reverberate in the future.”
(Credit: Prime Video)
Part of that future involves Jonah and investigator Millie’s (Jerrika Hinton) mission to hunt down the ultimate Nazi in hiding — Adolf Hitler (Udo Kier). “It was really just a sense of loving working with Al so much and the dream of having him want to come back. And how do we create a story that really services that character and does the entire show justice?” Weil says was the question.
Ultimately he found his answer in turning back the clock for “Meyer” and revisiting the early ’70s leading up to the period in time when he’d connected with Jonah’s grandmother Ruth (Jeannie Berlin).
The action set in the show’s most current timeline takes place two years following Season 1’s finale. So quite a bit of time has passed for the characters who are still living. It was through the writing process that Weil says he discovered “what a conclusion” Season 2 actually felt like. “This felt like such a real ending to this story and this tale,” Weil notes. It was with the support of Jordan Peele‘s Monkeypaw and Amazon that he says they decided to conclude the series overall. In other words, Season 2 wasn’t always intended to be the show’s last.
While Season 2 turns back the clock for Pacino’s character, Lerman’s Jonah is leading a double life abroad. “Season 1 was an entrance into this very special world for Jonah, and the question is really if you hunt monsters in the darkness, do you risk becoming a monster yourself? Season 2 explores the question of how do you protect your soul. How do you protect your personal life and your own identity? And the answer is to create a different identity,” Weil says.
In Season 2, Weil says, “you begin to see Jonah living out two separate lives, one as fiance to this woman Clara (Emily Rudd), living in Paris, the other as this continued Nazi hunter who’s delving into even darker depths to try and bring Nazis to justice.” Will the darkness prevail or will Jonah’s soul win out? Tune in to find out as Hunters wraps up its run on Prime Video.
Hunters, Season 2 Premiere, Friday, January 13, Prime Video
