‘Paradise’ Creator Dan Fogelman Unveils Exclusive Season 2 Sneak Peek At Comic-Con That Introduces Shailene Woodley

Paradise fans got a nice surprise at Saturday’s San Diego Comic-Con panel in the form of an extended sneak peek at the second season featuring none other than Season 2 newcomer Shailene Woodley.

The clip, which creator Dan Fogelman says is basically the Season 2 opening, begins before the volcanic eruption that causes a massive tsunami, which wiped out most of the population (or so we thought). In it, Woodley is a tour guide at Graceland. After a small montage of her waltzing around the property talking to guests, feeding horses and tending to the grounds, things get pretty ominous.

At the end of an afternoon tour, visitors are about to load onto their bus when everyone is stopped in their tracks by the alerts that the tsunami is on its way. Chaos erupts, seemingly unfolding along the same timeline as Episode 7 of the first season. Woodley jumps into action, grabbing supplies and instructing other staff on what to do.

They’re running throughout the massive house, readying to take cover, when they notice the tsunami is in sight, and they are out of time. As their technology fails and the electricity surges, they rush to a bunker inside Graceland, where the scene cuts to black.

“I brought this clip because I was like, ‘What are we gonna do?’ The visual effects aren’t finished yet. So forgive everything. I’m editing as we speak,” Fogelman said, teeing up the clip. “Nobody else, truly nobody else, has seen it.”

That, of course, delighted the audience. Fogelman also teased that Woodley will eventually cross paths with Sterling K. Brown‘s Xavier, but naturally, couldn’t say more. He added that most of that first episode will take place with Woodley at Graceland.

And what do you know — Woodley was on hand to discuss the clip and a bit about her role in Season 2, joining both Fogelman and Brown on stage for the remainder of the panel.

While the episode wasn’t actually filmed at Graceland (the show primarily shoots in and around Los Angeles), Woodley says it felt pretty real to her.

“I’ve never been to Graceland in real life yet, but I do feel like I own Graceland now,” she joked of being on the set, which completely recreated Elvis Presley’s compound all from photos.

Hulu brought the popular conspiracy thriller to Day 3 of Comic-Con, where Fogelman also revealed that production on Season 2 is nearly finished. He’s hoping there won’t be much more than a year between the first and second installments, meaning more episodes could land on streaming by January.

No official release date has been announced, but Fogelman assured: “I need to get Sterling on television once a year.”