“Versace: American Crime Story” executive producer Ryan Murphy says the second season of the FX anthology series comes at a perfect time given our current political climate.
“I think it does open a discussion and I think it’s the perfect timing based on this president we have,” Murphy told Entertainment Weekly. “One of the reasons I wanted to do this was I felt that Obama was a president who I revered. He was my president. I felt there was so much progress in terms of gay rights and rights for any marginalized group of people.
“Suddenly, it felt like Trump is inaugurated and the door closed and there’s fear again and they’re trying to take away everything that we fought for for so long. This is a bracing cold slap against the policies that the current government has. We celebrate gay people and gay creativity,” he continued. “So I think it’s the perfect time to put that on.”
The second season will star Edgar Ramirez as the famous fashion designer Gianni Versace, who was murdered in 1997 at his Miami home. Penelope Cruz will play Donatella Versace, while Ricky Martin stars as Versace’s lover Antonio D’Amico and Darren Criss will play Andrew Cunanan, who killed the designer.
Murphy sees the upcoming season, set for a debut in early 2018, as an opportunity to discuss sexuality and homophobia in the 1990s.
“The more I had read about it the more I was startled by the fact that [Versace killer Andrew Cunanan] really was only allowed to get away with it because of homophobia,” he said. “There was this great apathy about it and nobody cared and I think part of that was because it seemed like gay people were disposable in our culture.”
