Bad Monkey EP Bill Lawrence Offers Season 2 Update, Confirms Razor Girl Adaptation On Hold In Favor Of New Story With Same Cast

Eight months after Bad Monkey's Season 1 finale, and six months after the Vince Vaughn-led detective comedy was renewed at Apple TV+, executive producer Bill Lawrence tells TVLine that writing on Season 2 is nearly complete, and cameras will officially start rolling this fall.

"They're almost done in the writers' room," the EP says. "We already had to shoot a scene from Season 2 [in Florida, since production is] moving to California, and that starts production in earnest towards the end of September." (In other words, don't expect a release date any sooner than 2026.)

As for the premise, Lawrence confirms that, while they fully intend to adapt the second Andrew Yancy-centric novel, Razor Girl, for a future season, Season 2 will tell a wholly original story, with input from author Carl Hiaasen.

"Razor Girl is a great novel for people who want to read it, but it's kind of a break from the characters of the first [book]," Lawrence explains, "and we wanted to have some of the characters from the first season more front and center in the second" — including Natalie Martinez's Rosa. "[Season 2 is] an original story, but we're all Carl Hiaasen aficionados — and, also, Carl consults on the show and has been helping us a ton."

Vaughn stars as the aforementioned Andrew Yancy, a police detective who in Season 1 investigated a bizarre crime in the Florida Keys while on suspension from the force. Martinez co-starred as coroner Rosa, who emerged as a love interest for Yancy, with Rob Delaney and Meredith Hagner playing married scammers Nick and Eve Stripling. The ensemble also included Ronald Peet as Neville, John Ortiz as Ro, Jodie Turner-Smith as Gracie (aka the Dragon Queen) and Michelle Monaghan as Bonnie.

Bad Monkey wrapped Season 1 in October. The finale found Yancy and Rosa agreeing to part ways, and Yancy's friend Ro tempting him to look into another case. Its freshman run was based on Hiaasen's 2013 novel, Bad Monkey, while Razor Girl was published in 2016.