With HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones finally making a return for a second season this winter, we’re finally getting our first teaser for the comedy’s upcoming follow-up focused on a dysfunctional dynasty of televangelists, which you can view above.
The show stars Danny McBride, John Goodman, Adam DeVine, Edi Patterson, and Walton Goggins as the titular Gemstone family, who in the latest season must fight off threats by outsiders from both past and present who wish to destroy their empire.
The plot of the second season centers around the family gaining quite a bit of wealth during the pandemic by launching their own Christian-focused digital streaming platform, “GODD” or “Gemstones On Digital Demand.”
In the trailer, we see more of newcomers Jason Schwartzman, who plays a journalist named Thaniel seeking to expose the family’s corruption, and Eric Andre, who plays a rival megachurch pastor named Lyle Lissons, who makes a pitch McBride’s Jesse Gemstone to “combine forces and see what God can do with our synergy.”
There’s also a power struggle teased in the trailer as to who will take over the empire once patriarch John Goodman’s Eli Gemstone reaches retirement age, with Jesse, Adam Devine’s Kelvin Gemstone, and Edi Patterson’s Judi Gemstone all wanting a chance at the throne.
In addition, Kelvin looks to be building up what he calls a “Christian army,” The Kelvin Gemstone God Squad—a group of “muscular boys,” as Eli calls them, who engage in what looks like intense physical training for some unknown purpose. The subplot further points to Kelvin possibly being a closeted gay man, with his close companion and roommate, Tony Cavalero’s Keef Chambers, playing Kelvin’s right-hand man. The friendship was portrayed as brimming with homoerotic undertones in the first season.
Righteous Gemstones begins streaming its second season on HBO Max on Jan. 9, 2022.
