Don Cheadle’s ‘Black Monday’ Renewed for Season 2

The greed, the swag and the music from the ’80s are here to stay, and so are the chaos and panic of a black Monday. Showtime has renewed its Wall Street comedy ‘Black Monday’ for a second season. The show features Don Cheadle, Andrew Rannells and Regina Hall as a trading trio of the Wall Street circus. Created by David Caspe, who is known for ‘Happy Endings,’ and Jordan Cahan, who is known for ‘My Best Friend’s Girl,’ ‘Black Monday’ will resume filming this year for a 2020 season 2 premiere. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg join Caspe and Cahan to executive produce the show. Rogen and Goldberg directed the pilot earlier. ‘Black Monday‘ is produced by Showtime in association with Sony Pictures Television Studios.

“Black Monday mines big comedy from the greed, the style, the music and the excess of the ’80s, but it’s also sneaky-smart in its social commentary about that era – and indirectly, our current era as well,” Gary Levine, President of Entertainment of Showtime Networks is quoted as saying by Deadline. “We can’t wait to see what inspired depravity David and Jordan will cook up in Season 2,” he added.

Set in 1987, the show takes us back to October 19, the Black Monday, on which international stock markets collapsed. The plot follows the events of the day through the point of views of the ruthless power trader Mo, played by Don Cheadle, his colleague and love interest Dawn, played by Regina Hall, and his protégé Blair, played by Andrew Rannells. They work for a trading firm in Wall Street and plot to exploit the havoc and panic among traders. Paul Scheer also plays an important role in the series. The cast also includes Yassir Lester, Michael James Scott and Eugene Cordero. Season 1 of ‘Black Monday’ garnered critical acclaim for its dark humour and raw portrayal of Wall Street life in the late ’80s. Black Monday’ has wrapped up its successful first season in March with 300,000 total live tune-in viewers.

“The main aspect of Mo’s personality is to shoot first — he’s definitely shoot, ready, aim,” Cheadle told THR in a previous interview. “If he was a poker player, he would rather have all of his money in the middle, waiting on the cards to come to make his hand good, rather than someone who knows they have a great hand and goes in. And as we know, it can’t last. The wheels, at some point, have to come off when you deal with business in that way,” he added.

“You see that a lot with these characters who have all this bravado, walking around like they’re running the spot, that they have a very deep fear, and a deep sense of not actually being as good as they profess that they are, and a big concern that they’re going to be discovered at any minute. I think that’s what Mo is running around with, like, “I’m a charlatan and everybody’s gonna find out in two seconds,” said Cheadle about his ruthless Mo in the THR interview.

Cheadle, who also serves an executive producer on the series, collaborates with Showtime after the successful series ‘House of Lies.’ ‘Black Monday’ joins the league of Showtime series ‘Billions,’ ‘Ray Donovan’ and ‘The Chi’ with the renewal.

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