Here's Everything We Know About Annie Murphy's 'Russian Doll' Role So Far
After spending six seasons as Alexis Rose on Schitt's Creek, Annie Murphy's career is poised to take off to new heights. First, it was announced she'd star in the AMC dark comedy Kevin Can F*** Himself. Now, she has a role on the fan-fave Netflix show, Russian Doll. The first season of the series starred Natasha Lyonne as Nadia, a software engineer who finds herself stuck in a time loop after dying on her 36th birthday. But with that storyline wrapping up pretty neatly, who will Annie Murphy play in Russian Doll Season 2? Since Netflix has yet to release that info, let us speculate wildly:
The field is wide open for Murphy, partly because no one knows what will happen in the second season of the series. Season 1 began with Nadia in a gruesome version of Groundhog Day, attempting to make it to the end of her 36th birthday without dying. Unfortunately, at the end of each sequence, she failed and reset in the bathroom of her friend Maxine's apartment, at the top of the evening's birthday festivities. Along the way, she discovers she's not alone; Alan (Charlie Barnett) is also trapped in an eternal loop of death with her.
The season concludes with the two of them finally breaking free. Nadia and Alan discover the key to ending the time loop is to break out of their self-absorption that evening and help the other stay alive.
With the time loop effectively broken and their lives on a new path, Season 2 is free to go anywhere. That is, presumably, where Murphy comes in.
Throughout the season, several threads of Nadia's life come up in her meditation on trying to escape a fate worse than death, dying perpetually. Her childhood, for one thing, and her inability to handle relationships as a result, are main concerns. That would pretty neatly set up a familial relation to blow into her life in Season 2. Could Murphy play a relative of Nadia?
Maybe, but it needn't be that complicated. One of the joys of Nadia's world is that it's a particular slice of the New York art scene. It's set very deliberately in the small corner of Manhattan, where Lyonne and fellow series creators Leslye Headland and Amy Poehler spent years living. Murphy, a Canadian, spent most of her career before Schitt's Creek trying to make it as an actor on the West Coast. But it wouldn't be hard to see her as another member of Nadia's crowd — maybe she'll play a fellow party-goer.
A third option for Murphy's role would be a new love interest for Alan. Although Nadia and Alan grow close over their endless nights of dying, their friendship is platonic. That leaves him free to find a new love interest after Season 1's breakup with Beatrice — hopefully one who won't dump him when he proposes marriage.
Of course, it could be that none of these theories are correct. Lyonne has even said the show could go in a number of directions, including one that has nothing to do with her character Nadia. “I definitely have ideas ranging from the really kind of out-there anthology to staying on board with our friend Nadia,” Lyonne told The Hollywood Reporter about her plans for the series in June 2019.
For now, fans will just have to wait and see. As of March 10, Russian Doll Season 2 does not yet have a release date; filming for the new season is currently underway.
