'Only Murders in the Building' Stars Talk Season 2 Changes in Getting to the Bottom of Who Killed Bunny

After the first season of Hulu's Only Murders In the Building proved to be one of the biggest television hits of 2021, there were still mysteries waiting to be solved. Yes, of course, there was the question of the on-screen cliffhanger, which left Selena Gomez's Mabel Mora covered in blood, leaning over the dead body of former Arconia HOA board president Bunny (Jane Houdyshell). Behind the scenes, though, there was the question of whether co-creator and star Steve Martin and his onscreen partners-in-solving-crime Martin Short and Gomez could put together an equally compelling, equally funny whodunnit for a second season. 

But a combination of some new settings and the chance to explore new sides of the characters kept the actors energized, which they hope will translate to the audience's appetite for the show, too.

"Taking our characters outdoors was exciting," Martin, who plays Charles-Haden Savage in the Hulu comedy, tells Metacritic of the 10-episode second season.

Although the Arconia is still very important to determining how the killer accosted Bunny so easily, the new season sees the now-semi-famous podcasting trio have more opportunities to break out of the confines of their building to hunt for clues and suspects — and begin to further flesh out their personal lives in the process.  

"We had a little bit of that in the first season, but the second season we had a lot of outdoors, running around New York City and parks," says Martin. "It was a lot more chasing down people in this season."

Martin says he also was enamored of just how lavishly, gorgeously shot all those NYC scenes are. "The show looks so beautiful. I'm just happy to be in a show that looks that good. It looks like The Godfather." 

Mabel's evolution was particularly important to Gomez. Even though the character is under suspicion due to her finding Bunny's body, she is trying to step out of the shadows of her troubled history and into the light, with both a new look and a possible new love, in the form of avant garde artist and gallery curator Alice, played by Cara Delevingne. 

"She wants to get rid of her past and she cuts her hair, and she's more curious about life and just [figuring] out who she is," says Gomez.

Of Delevingne, Gomez adds that she was "fantastic to work with because it didn't feel like work: It felt like just being there with my best friend, which therefore made it more comfortable for me, and it just was so organic — it was really, really fun." 

Meanwhile, Short's Oliver Putnam continues to bask in the career-reviving attention of the Only Murders podcast while also reckoning with the ramifications of his shortcomings as a father. 

"For Oliver, the exploration of trying to resolve his relationship with his son and improve it, and the greater honesty for himself personally, as a character was the most interesting writing to me," says Short. 

While Oliver once again provides many of the new season's funniest moments and most outrageous one-liners, Short says he has to walk a fine line to make the comedy work within the framework of the murder mystery and the show's often poignant shifts in tone. 

"Oliver does a lot of jokes, but I always think with comedy in general, if it looks like you're trying to make people laugh too hard, then people don't laugh," he explains. "So, you have to keep it somehow within the context of the character, and yeah, it is a balance."

Along with adding new dimensions to Charles, Oliver, and Mabel, the series once again indulges in following novel storytelling paths that spotlight the supporting players in the Arconia, including Houdyshell's Bunny, cat-loving busybody Howard (Michael Cyril Creighton), Teddy Dimas (Nathan Lane), and Theo Dimas (James Caverly).

"Every episode is seen through the eyes of a different character," says Martin. "Each episode starts off with a narration of, say, one of the superfans, or Bunny, or someone else, so that's truly been good." 

Along with Delevingne, there are additional new faces populating the second season: Amy Schumer, playing herself, in the tradition of Sting, as the latest celebrity resident of the Arconia with a particularly acute interest in the trio's podcast; Michael Rappaport, as a loudmouthed NYPD detective a tad over-reliant on good cop/bad cop TV tropes; Hollywood legend Shirley MacLaine as Bunny's grand, but mysterioso, mother; young actress Zoe Colletti as an unexpected face from Charles' past; and Short's SCTV comrade Andrea Martin in a surprise appearance. 

A few of the starry guest actors from the first season also resurface in fresh, unexpected ways, and supporting players including Adina Verson's Poppy, the ambitious assistant to podcast superstar Cinda Canning (Tina Fey), and Det. Williams (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) are elevated into prominent roles in the new mystery. 

But of course the trio is front and center and embroiled in even more conflict and comedy than in the first season. And that's exactly how these actors want it.

"My favorite scenes to shoot are the scenes when all three of us are together," says Gomez. "There's something really just fun, off set and on set." 

Short says that he's thrilled that the audience found as many delights in the series as the three actors did making it. "Sometimes you do things and you have a fabulous time doing it and that's the only memory you take from it — just the joy of doing it — because maybe people didn't like it, or didn't work out, or it didn't all cut together," he says. "We had such a joy doing this show, and then to have it be so appreciated is phenomenal." 

And all three stars also agree that there are a very likely more homicides in their TV future, beyond the new season — assuming none of their characters become victims themselves. 

"We love the show. We're happy to do it," says Martin. "And I like the idea that, like Murder... She Wrote, there's a murder a week. No matter where she went, there was a murder. I find that's a little bit funny: that no matter what happens, there's a murder every year in our building." 

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