Donald Glover Talks About Expectations of Discussing Trump in New Season of ‘Atlanta'

Glover discusses political expectations heading into the second season of 'Atlanta.'

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Image via Getty/Paras Griffin

donald glover atlanta getty paras griffin

The season one finale of Atlanta aired on November 1, 2016—one week before Donald Trump was elected president.

Known for incorporating social commentary into the show, creator Donald Glover says he anticipated expectations to address the changing political climate. In a new interview with The New York Times, Glover explained, "We knew people were going to expect us to talk about Trump."

Sitting down with others involved with the show to discuss the new season, Glover says, "I think it started with us asking: 'Do poor people even care? Are poor people even being affected by this? It’s not like oh, things were great for poor people under Obama, and now they’re way bad. If you’re poor, you’re still at the bottom."

Glover didn't explicitly state whether the second season ever addresses Trump, but he did explain that "a lot of things got thrown out because they felt almost too adult, too linear."

Atlanta writer Stephen Glover pointed out that the impact of the presidency might not actually change the type of individuals depicted in Atlanta as much as people would expect. "There’s something funny about the idea that when you’re poor it doesn’t matter who’s president," he said. "We talked about the possibility of doing a bit where you show the night Obama won and they’re super happy, and then you show later and everything’s exactly the same. Nothing ever changes."

Regardless of any Trump mentions in season two, Atlanta Robbin' Season will be noticeably darker in tone. Stephen Glover explained, "I started to remember what it’s like to live there during the winter time; the city just has a vibe that’s very dark. People think it’s a party city, but there’s this side where there’s a lot of crime and grittiness. I think that goes with the Trump vibe, too. People were just feeling a little less optimistic at the time. Robbin’ Season encapsulated all of that."

Donald Glover also discussed the reality of creating a show like Atlanta in a sensitive era where entertainers routinely receive backlash for controversial material. He said he isn't planning on backing down and explained, "To pretend like there is not racism, colorism, sexism, killing, all the worst parts of humanity in that area is doing a disservice to black people and humanity. If you don’t like some of the [expletive] that’s in the show, stop taking music out of our schools, stop making money out of our areas."

"I just think that’s a problem millennials have — things should be this way," Glover said. Holding up his iPhone, he added, "In order for you to even have this phone, a slave had to make it. Confront that. Deal with that. Don’t sit here and be like, we should censor it and make everything beautiful. Because it’s not beautiful out here. That’s a white problem, to be honest. I don’t think any black person is watching the show being like, 'You can’t do that.' It’s: Yeah, that’s my uncle.' Or: 'Yeah, that’s some real [expletive].' I don’t have to clean that up for you. You have to deal with the fact that that’s out there. I can’t change that, really. I can just show you."

The first episode of Atlanta Robbin' Season airs on March 1 on FX.

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