How ‘Marie Antoinette’ Season 2 Is ‘The Beginning of the End’

Everyone knows where the story of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI leads. Marie Antoinette Season 2 triggers “the beginning of the end,” according to star Louis Cunningham.

Season 2 returns Sunday, March 23 on PBS after the premiere of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light. In it, “Marie Antoinette knows that her enemies are waiting in the wings to destroy her,” PBS teases of the period drama starring Emilia Schüle as the infamous queen of France. “At the height of their power, Marie Antoinette and Louis face an unprecedented financial crisis. The incessant attacks of Provence [Jack Archer] and Chartres [Oscar Lesage] stir up the hatred of the nobles while disastrous consequences loom with the Diamond Necklace Affair. From Versailles to the Palais-Royal, the revolt rumbles on.”

The royal couple begins in a relatively good place in Season 2, but their relationship, as Cunningham teases, will reverberate through the whole of France. Here, Cunningham previews what’s to come in this high-stakes second season.

Where do things pick up in Season 2? What’s the state of France and the state of Louis and Marie’s relationship?

Louis Cunningham: Beginning of Season 2, Louis and Marie Antoinette are basically at the pinnacle. France actually likes them quite a lot at this period of time. They’re quite popular among the people. Louis has had the success of his wars against England and the American War of Independence, and so he’s slightly proved himself to be a leader where people didn’t think he was going to be capable of anything. Personally, they are very unified. They’ve produced an heir, which was a big thematic thing in Season 1, and they’ve secured the line. So, they’re a team, but at the same time, there’s a lot of twists and turns and snares that are ready to catch them in the form of the people around them and the true state of the finances and economy of France at that period of time, and also their inner family situation.

How have things changed in their marriage since last season? They produced the heir, that’s good. But connection wise, how are they doing?

For me, it’s kind of good as ever because it’s just how they are. I like to say that they have this kind of platonic love. They’re best friends in a way. So, they’ve settled into that type of relationship, which may not be necessarily understandable to people around him and is not necessarily normal to depict as romantic leads of a TV show. But they have this deep understanding for each other. They fulfilled their obligations of producing an heir, and they don’t necessarily have those sexual obligations or desires for each other anymore. So, they’ve settled into a kind of harmonious journey. They’re both wonderful, loving parents. And yeah, there’s trials and tribulations to come.

Do they stay on good terms with each other?

There’s ups and downs, definitely. The beginning is very unified, and then slowly through many different situations. Louis’ work life takes a big leading role in terms of he’s trying to deal with the massive amounts of debt that France is in, and he’s keeping that from her. And then another huge aspect is their son, [who] causes great friction in their relationship. At the end though, towards the end of the season, all of these burdens come crashing down on Louis. The wider country becomes more aware of the financial situation and the stress becomes too much. So, they really go on a bit of a rollercoaster. But I think throughout it all, despite moments where they may be torn apart, they just have this deep friendship and understanding for each other that is quite unwavering and quite beautiful.

Caroline Dubois / Capa Drama / Canal+

The threat of civil unrest is looming this season. Louis has a huge secret that’s weighing on him, and then the Diamond Necklace Affair kicks off, which is historically the harbinger of doom for these real-life monarchs. How does Season 2 challenge the real reputations of these historic figures?

It shows their flaws in many ways. It shows Louis at times being indecisive, not being able to cut through the noise of his advisors and make decisions. In many ways, if he had decided to impose taxes on the noble and clergy earlier, maybe things would’ve been different, or if he’d changed a constitutional monarchy, maybe there are so many different routes and what ifs for him and for Marie Antoinette. At one point, she makes a purchase for her own security, but obviously when that’s viewed from the outside world, that’s just her being frivolous and spending again and wasting money. So, we see how these things start to slowly impact the personal relationships of these people.

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But also what I love about this season is we do see outside of Versailles. We see the court of the Palais-Royal, which is run by Louis’s cousin, Chartres, and he starts an environment where free thinkers, philosophers, and revolutionaries in their early stages gathered and discussed and started to sow these seeds of doubt in terms of how this country is structured and run. And he and his vendetta against Louis and Marie Antoinette fed that with his printing press and with many other forms of slightly seditious moves.

Ultimately, I think it shows how their personal situations affected the wider nation. We see all of those historically known moments and facts and stuff on a very, very personal level. And so we see where they trip up, where they might do things that on the outside are completely misunderstood. We see it from many different angles.

With the Diamond Necklace Affair being a key plot, is Season 2 the beginning of the end for these doomed figures?

Absolutely. It definitely is. From the very beginning, you get that the stakes are really turned up. The whole season has a darker [feel]. It’s not a thriller, but there’s moments of thriller-esque suspense throughout it. And so it’s definitely the beginning of the end. This season is setting up how and why the revolution came about. And in reality, it’s showing that there are so many different aspects to how this revolution started. It wasn’t just an overnight situation. There is the financial situation, there’s the Diamond Necklace Affair, there’s the Palais-Royal, and the cousin’s influence there. And there’s weather. Weather was a big thing. They had some of the worst winters in history, and so all the grain was frozen. They couldn’t harvest anything. And then some people were buying up all the grain. There are so many different aspects to everything, and it’s really interesting.

There’s a moment in one episode where you see maybe 10 seconds of a hailstorm. It comes right after Louis and Marie Antoinette have gone through a really tragic event. So, they’re just sitting outside, not really speaking, desperately upset, but paying no mind to the fact that there’s a hailstorm when in reality we know that that hailstorm represents the death of millions of people and the starvation of millions of people. And it’s this slightly uncomfortable thing because you’re feeling sorry for Louis and Marie Antoinette, but at the same time, you know that this means nothing to them. And at the same time, outside these gardens, it’s all going to s**t.

Caroline Dubois / Capa Drama / Canal+

There’s a clear disconnect despite their attempts to be aware of the issues of the people. Does this kind of obliviousness continue throughout the season for Louis?

It goes up and down. He was really desperate to try and understand the feel of the nation around him. He would get most of his news filtered through all of his advisors and everyone else, so it was this sanitized version of events. But in reality, he found ways to circumvent that. He would find pamphlets from outside, which really told him what the kind of true sense of the nation was. So, he desperately was wanting to understand people, and he wanted to be a king for his people. But at the same time, he was quite easily swayed by his advisors and all the people around him and by the world that he lived in. One plot point of this season is him trying to impose taxes on the noble and in the clergy. And when you’re doing that, but you’re only surrounded by those people, of course, they’re all going to hate you. And of course, that becomes your entire world. So, you don’t get the outside voice of the millions of other people that will help. It’s a balancing act for him. But ultimately, I would say that the voices around him win.

Louis’ brother and his cousin are creating real problems for this couple as well. Give me a sense of how Louis reacts to specifically these challenges.

The brother is a really interesting one this season because we started a lot of Season 1, Louis was being undermined by his brother, and he was definitely the weaker party of the two. But this season, from the outset, we see that he’s gained this confidence. Louis squashes [their feud], basically. Slowly but surely Provence and the cousin unite a bit and work together.

Ultimately, between Louis and Provence, the thing that undermines Louis is loyalty and love for his brother because there’s a manipulation that goes on later in the season involving the brother.

What was important for you and Emilia to bring out in Louis and Marie’s relationship this season?

One of the main aspects that we really wanted to bring out was this slightly unconventional love setup. We wanted to show that in a way that wasn’t just as a dramatic device, sort of like a, “Ooh, how scandalizing,” and everything. We wanted to show it as a real unity and a different way. And the other thing we wanted to show was how marital spats in their situation have reverberations across the entire France. We wanted to show the ups and downs of a marriage, but how the ups and downs of their marriage have political and national reverberations.

Marie Antoinette, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, March 23, 10/9c, PBS

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