One of the comedy breakouts of 2023 was Jury Duty, a documentary-style comedy for Amazon Freevee that featured James Marsden and other actors surrounding an unsuspecting juror at a trial. The Emmy-nominated comedy is back and — surprise — its second season is already in the can, sources tell Deadline. It will run on Prime Video where Freevee’s content migrated after Amazon’s free ad-supported streaming platform was shut down last November.
Details are being kept under wraps but we hear that the theme of the new installment is David vs. Goliath. Taking inspiration from classic 1980s movies such as Animal House and Caddyshack, it is about a small business going on a company retreat, with the real, unsuspecting person tested when a Goliath suddenly shows up, sources said.
To protect the integrity of the premise with the regular person not realizing that they are part of a scripted TV show, just like they did with Season 1, the casting and production of the new installment was done in a clandestine manner.
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The majority of the series’ creative team is believed to be back. Season 1 was executive produced by David Bernad, Lee Eisenberg, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Cody Heller, Todd Schulman, Gene Stupnitsky, Jake Szymanski and Andrew Weinberg. Eisenberg and Stupnitsky co-created the series, Heller served as showrunner, and Szymanski directed.
Jury Duty’s first installment chronicled the inner workings of an American jury trial through the eyes of one particular juror, Ronald Gladden. Gladden is unaware the entire case is fake, everyone except him is an actor, including Marsden, and everything that happens — inside the courtroom and out — is carefully planned.
Marsden starred as an alternate version of himself alongside Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, Brandon Loeser, Edy Modica, Kerry O’Neill, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, and Evan Williams.
The first season earned four Emmy nominations in 2023, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Supporting Actor In a Comedy Series for Marsden, Writing For a Comedy Series and Casting for a Comedy Series.