Donald Glover Reminds Fans That Fx’s Atlanta Final Season Premiere Today

Donald Glover posted a message to his fans, reminding them (and anyone else) that the final season of FX’s Atlanta premieres tonight, on FX and FX on Hulu next day. In the message (written last night), Glover writes: “the final season of ‘atlanta’ premieres tomorrow.” Concise, to the point, and at 80K likes (at the time of writing this), effective. And necessary. Atlanta’s Final Season trailer may not have driven the message home hard enough: the show is back faster than anyone expected. 

Atlanta Season 3 premiered in March of this year, meaning that Season 4 and the final eight episodes of the series are arriving almost six months after Season 3 started – and just four months after the Season 3 finale aired on May 19th. That’s a massive turnaround from the show’s previous pace, season-to-season. Atlanta first premiered in Fall 2016; Season 2 didn’t arrive until Spring 2018; as stated, Atlanta Season 3 didn’t arrive until March 2022 (albeit due to the COVID-19 pandemic). 

The original plan was for Atlanta Season 3 and 4 to film back-to-back with eight episodes each, after season 3’s production was first delayed to 2019 due to scheduling conflicts with the show’s cast (Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, Zazie Beetz, Lakeith Stanfield). Season 4 was picked up before Season 3 started shooting, and an early 2020 production start was set for overseas locations. The COVID-19 pandemic hitting in early 2020 delayed all production on Atlanta until April 2021; Season 3 was still filmed over in Europe and given a ten-episode count; Season 4’s production was moved to Atlanta for the final eight episodes. 

Atlanta has been one of the more unique TV shows to come out of the latter half of the 2010s. Often described as Twin Peaks with a hip-hop backdrop, Glover’s slightly surrealist nightmare of the American fame and fortune chase has explored deep issues of race, gender, and socio-political issues, along with more personal commentaries on the entertainment industry, fame, and black culture. In addition to pulling a dedicated cult-fave fan base for itself, Atlanta has won numerous industry awards, including Golden Globes for Glover as lead actor and the show itself; Emmys for Glover’s acting and directing on the show, fan and image-based awards like MTV, People’s Choice, and NAACP awards – not to mention numerous technical award wins with the PGA, WGA, DGA and TCAs. 

However, the cast and creators of Atlanta have also seen their respective careers blow up, with Beetz and Henry both cast in major comic book movie franchises, Lakieth Stanfield starring in major movie roles, and Glover doing everything from acting to music, to more content creation. 

That’s all to say: Atlanta’s Final Season pretty much as to be the last. Season 4 premieres tonight on FX Networks.