⚠️ SPOILER WARNING — This article contains details from The Four Seasons Season 2 finale.
David Tennant flew in, shot one scene in a single day, and left audiences wanting a third season. That’s the short version of how the former Doctor Who star came to play Gianpiero — the Italian neighbor who ends The Four Seasons Season 2 on a romantic cliffhanger — and co-creator Tracey Wigfield says the casting began with exactly one name.
“Tina, the first person she said was, ‘Well, someone like David Tennant, like a David Tennant kind of guy,'” Wigfield recalled. “We were so thrilled that we went to him first and he said yes. He flew in and we shot it — it was just the one scene — so we shot it in one day, and he’s so lovely and he looks so good with Kerri.”
The scene in question closes out the Italy-set finale. After her friends depart, Anne — played by Kerri Kenney-Silver — chooses to stay behind, and soon meets her courtyard neighbor Gianpiero when he turns up with some of her misdelivered mail. It is a small moment with large implications. Wigfield explained the creative logic: “Anne obviously has been on a journey in Season 1 and then Season 2 as well — she’s trying to be Anne 2.0 and have this sort of personal renaissance, but it’s not going great. So there was something really exciting when we were thinking about a cliffhanger for a possible Season 3 of having a romantic cliffhanger, and someone that you would get so excited to see more stories with.”
Anne’s arc has carried particular weight across both seasons. Season 1 ended with Nick’s shocking death and the revelation that his younger girlfriend Ginny was pregnant with his child, leaving Anne widowed and adrift. Season 2 follows the now-reduced group of friends through Italy as they each reckon with grief and stalled personal reinvention.
The season has landed well. Within a day of its May 28 premiere, The Four Seasons reached No. 1 in the United States on Netflix’s Top 10 charts, and topped the charts in 12 countries. Season 2 currently holds a 90% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes — a significant climb from Season 1. Metacritic placed it at 77 out of 100, with critics praising its sharper tone and the emotional space created by Steve Carell’s absence.
Season 2 reunites Tina Fey and Kenney-Silver onscreen with Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Marco Calvani and Erika Henningsen. No Season 3 has been confirmed, but the finale — and the choice to end on Tennant’s face — makes the case for one.
