In a nutshell:
Carmy, Sydney, and co will remain in the kitchen for a second season of the critically acclaimed FX drama, which will track The Original Beef of Chicagoland’s transformation into Carmy’s new restaurant, named The Bear.
Who will be in the cast of The Bear Season 2?
All of The Bear’s major players—newly minted Golden Globe winner Jeremy Allen White (Carmy), Ayo Edebiri (Sydney), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Richie), Lionel Boyce (Marcus), Liza Colón-Zayas (Tina), Edwin Lee Gibson (Ebraheim), Corey Hendrix (Gary), and Abby Elliott (Sugar)—are expected to reprise their roles for Season 2. However, it’s not yet known if we’ll see more of either Mikey (Carmy and Sugar’s late brother, as played by Jon Bernthal) or the abusive executive chef Carmy worked under in New York, embodied by Joel McHale, via flashbacks. Molly Ringwald, who delivered a moving monologue as a guest star, may not be back either, but another familiar face will feature: Better Call Saul’s Bob Odenkirk who, per Variety, has a yet-to-be-disclosed guest role. Considering the frenzy around the show’s second season, more A-list cameos could be on the cards, too.
What will be the plot of The Bear Season 2?
The first season ended with—spoiler alert—Carmy discovering vast sums of cash stuffed inside the tins of tomatoes in their kitchen. In the final minutes of the last episode, we see him hanging up a sign on the door of The Original Beef of Chicagoland which says: “The Beef is closed. Thank you for your patronage. The Bear is coming.” Season 2 should, in theory, pick up where this leaves off, following Carmy and the team as they set up their new establishment.
More clues can be found in a recent interview that Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Christopher Storer, and Joanna Calo gave to Variety. Considering the way the first installment ended, White told the publication that he doesn’t believe Carmy is in a position to be a mentor to Sydney this time around. “I hope that’s something that’s explored a little bit in the second season—if he can kind of get out of his own way a little bit, how can he help everybody else in the kitchen and also how can they help him?” he said. “I think, in this first season, he had a lot of selfish thinking going on. I think he wanted to be there for Sydney, but I don’t think he was capable.” Calo adds that while Season 1 was about “finding a family and feeling anchored,” Season 2 will focus on hospitality, taking care of others, and making the cast’s lives a bit bigger.
Also due to be covered? Whether or not Sydney will get profit sharing once the new restaurant opens. “It really is the natural extension,” said Storer. “The thing we talk about a lot is that winning is losing, so even though they have this new opportunity, it still creates a lot of the same problems. What does Carmen and Sydney’s dream restaurant look like? But also, at the same time, what is a dream restaurant in 2023? I think that’s the thing they’re sort of battling with.”