Abbott Elementary stars Tyler James Williams and William Stanford Davis are giving viewers a sneak peak as to what’s in store for their respective characters in the upcoming season of the Emmy award-winning hit show.
As a refresher, Williams plays the slightly anti-social yet steadfast substitute-turned-full-time teacher Gregory Eddie, while Stanford Davis plays the hilarious and societally skeptical janitor Mr. Johnson. (Davis’ character was upped to a season regular back in July.) Both actors shared that we’ll be taking a deeper look into the personal lives of the teachers and who they as people outside of the school.
“I think with Jacob and Janine, we see them as young, early teachers. But we have yet to see anybody in this world that’s a first-time, first-year teacher. And with Gregory, we get a chance to see that especially with him being the overachiever that he is,” Williams said to The Root and other members of the press during a roundtable.
“We’ll get a real glimpse of what it’s like for freshman teachers who wanna come in and change the world and feel like they can do everything better and differently. And then they get knocked on their ass sometimes. So I think we’ll see Gregory have to realize that he can’t do everything perfectly, that it’s not as easy as he thought it was to reform and to change things. But hopefully, we also get a chance to see his resilience and see pick up the building blocks he’ll need for a successful teaching career long-term,” he concluded.
Added Davis, “I think with Mr. Johnson, we’re gonna see a lot of the same from last year in terms of his frankness with everybody, he’s pretty much filter-less. But I think you’re gonna see a little more of his personal life, a little more away from school. And I think you’re gonna see more of him.”
Later, when The Root caught up with Williams during the red carpet at this year’s Emmys, he also divulged about the trajectory of the relationship between Gregory and show creator Quinta Brunson’s character Janine in the forthcoming season.
“I think, much like you saw in the finale in S Season One, timing is everything. And that’s really what I feel like Season Two is about, where right as Janine is becoming single, Gregory is going into something. And we’ll just keep playing with that much like it is in real life,” he explained. “That’s the one thing Quinta’s keeping secret. She’s the only one who knows the ‘will they?’ or the ‘won’t they?’ I still don’t know. It’s the super slow burn and I think she really likes the tease so she may keep this up for some time."
Season two of Abbott Elementary premieres Wednesday, Sep. 21 on ABC and streaming next day on Hulu.