Donald Glover: ‘Atlanta’ Season 3 Will Have ‘Realest,’ ‘Most Enjoyable’ Episodes

By Ellis Clopton

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Donald Glover was met with applause after assuring the audience at the Saban Media Center on Friday that the upcoming third season of “Atlanta” would be their television equivalent of Kanye West’s Grammy award-winning third album, “Graduation.”

“This will be our most accessible, but also the realest and honest version of it, and I think the most enjoyable,” Glover said.

Glover and his co-writer and brother, Stephen, were tight-lipped about details about the recently announced third season , but Stephen said the show’s writers are eager to get started.

“We can do almost anything,”  he added.

On the red carpet for the “” FYC, Stephen Glover told Variety he wasn’t concerned about the chances of FX renewing the show.

“Just talking to the heads [of ], they were really positive about it. and even though it hadn’t been announced yet, I felt good about it,” he said. “So when it did get announced, everybody was like “Cool, let’s get back to work.””

Continuing the hip-hop industry comparisons, said the show’s writers think about writing a new season in terms of releasing a new mixtape, where rappers continually face the pressure of topping themselves.

“That’s what rap is, you have to top yourself,” he said. “So we just do the seasons like that.”

Even though the Glover brothers and the show’s other writers, Stefani Robinson and Jamal Olori, haven’t begun writing anything for the third season, Donald Glover said the key to writing an “Atlanta” episode all comes down to writing moments.

“We understand as a group that things are made of moments, so we just focus on moments because a good moment can really change an entire episode,” he said.

Brian Tyree Henry told Variety that “Atlanta’s” popularity can be attributed to not only just appealing to African-American audiences, but also that viewers across the country tuned in and made it successful, allowing them to elevate the careers of other actors and actresses of color.

“People are willing to allow us to go into their homes and they go with us on these stories, and it’s so refreshing to see that,” Henry said. “You really can’t beat that.”