The Bear Season 2: Sydney and Carmy’s dream restaurant and Bob Odenkirk guest appearance
Yes, chef! FX’s culinary dramedy The Bear dishes out two additional teasers of its highly- anticipated second season return this June 22. The Original Beef of Chicagoland is back to serve The Bear special — fast cuts and tension you can cut with a knife.
Watch the official season 2 trailer, released last March 16, 2023 above.
The Bear Season 2: Sydney and Carmy’s dream restaurant and Bob Odenkirk guest appearance
The teasers “Getting Ready” (June 3) and “Looking Forward” (June 1) find the crew overhauling the grimy Italian Beef sandwich joint into a fine-dining restaurant three months before the big opening day. But face no fear, brash-talking cousin Richie Jerimovich (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the restaurant’s handyman and known for his iconic quote “I got hearth” Neil (Matty Matheson) will bring out the power tools.
Cousin Richie, Neil, and Marcus join forces to fix the drywall. YOUTUBE | FX Network, The Bear Season 2 Official Trailer
Old antics in the kitchen will not fly anymore. Big changes are coming, menial renovation, recruiting new staff, longtime employees enrolling in culinary school, and the grueling process of perfecting the new “chaotic menu.” Also, they need a new project manager.
YOUTUBE | FX Network, The Bear S2 teaser “Getting Ready”
The Chicago-set series also features stars Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Edwin Lee Gibson, Corey Hendrix, Richard Esteras, and Jose M. Cervantes, all part of the chaotic kitchen staff and Abby Elliott as Carmy’s sister, Natalie.
What awaits for The Bear’s second season?
Overall, the second season plot of the half-hour series leans on the massive renovation courtesy of the plastic-sealed bundles of cash stashed inside the tomato cans. It will also likely dwell on the aftermath of the dumpster fire incident in the season one finale and the newly minted partnership between grieving masterchef Carmy Berzatto (Golden Globe best actor Jeremy Allen White) and ambitious sous chef Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri). The struggle of starting from scratch will test the growing friendship among the kitchen family and scratch the surface of the cast’s lives.
YOUTUBE | FX Network, The Bear S2 teaser “Looking Forward”
YOUTUBE | FX Network, The Bear S2 teaser “Getting Ready”
Creator Christopher Storer and co-showrunner Joanna Calo talk with Variety about what might transpire in the sophomore season.
“Season 2 really is about the opportunity to start fresh and what does that mean. What does Carmen and Sydney’s dream restaurant look like? But also at the same time, what is a dream restaurant in 2023 look like? I think that’s the thing they’re sort of battling with,” Storer says.
As shown in the first season, the Italian Beef sandwich restaurant barely survives. Carmy sells his expensive pieces of denim in exchange for the meat, Cousin Richie reopens the coke deals out back, which previously kept them alive during COVID-19, and now to keep the lights on.
Now for the second season, new restaurant, new troubles on the business front. It will dive further into whether or not Sydney will get profit sharing. “It really is the natural extension. The thing we talk about a lot is that winning is losing, so even though they have this new opportunity, it still creates a lot of the same problems,” Storer says.
Calo also says that while the first season is about “finding a family and feeling anchored,” the second season will home in on hospitality, caring for others, and making the cast’s lives a bit bigger. Though less stabbing would be nice, The Bear will not be complete without chaotic kitchen beatdowns that keep the audience at the edge of their seats.
Carmy is still grieving from the death of his brother Michael (Jon Bernthal) and former owner of The Beef. He has yet to face his demons and will spiral more in the upcoming season. “Nobody’s fixed and everyone’s a work in progress,” Storer says. “Every second counts.”
New faces to meet in the second season
YOUTUBE | FX Network “The Bear S2 teaser, Looking Forward”
Storer and recurring star and co-producer Matheson confirm on Instagram that Booksmart star Molly Gordon will join the ensemble for the second season. But details on Gordon’s character remain under wraps, though FX confirms it is a key recurring role. The half-hour series also tease a guest appearance of Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk — Saul Goodman himself will show off his culinary chops.
Is there a possible Sydney-Carmy romantic arc in Season 2?
YOUTUBE | FX Network The Bear S2 teaser “Getting Ready”
For those fingers-crossed shippers, in hopes for the dramatic tension between the two strong-willed chefs to blossom into a workplace romance, I have bad news for you. The Sydney-Carmy connection remains platonic in the brand-new season. In fact, the showrunners haven’t had intentions of cooking up a romantic arc from the get-go.
“We wanted to make something that was about friendship and a partnership,” Storer previously tells Variety. “It really is so funny that is one of the things that people took away — of all the heavy shit that’s going on in the show! It was interesting because Ayo and Jeremy, since they are our friends and are such wonderful people, I think there is this charisma that comes off both of them.”
Storer says, “From the beginning, it was like, we should just show people being really good at their jobs and pushing each other. Selfishly, I hadn’t seen a show without a romantic plot and was like, that could be kind of cool and interesting.”
Stars behind the heavily “shipped” duo share the same sentiments.
“I know there are people who are very invested in that [romance], and I understand and I appreciate it, but it was not that for me,” Bottoms’ star Edebiri shares.
“No! It was never discussed by anybody,” White says. He also doesn’t believe Carmy’s even in the position to be a mentor to Sydney, let alone anything more, “I think he wanted to be there for Sydney, but I don’t think he was capable,” the Shameless alum adds.
All episodes of The Bear season 1 are on Hulu, and the upcoming 10-episode season 2 will be available to stream beginning June 22.
