It’s been more than three years since Donald Glover bestowed the world with new episodes of Atlanta. On Sunday night, the Emmy-winning creator cryptically let everyone know that the wait is almost over. “happy halloween,” he tweeted, alongside the link to a site called “Gilga.”
Once there, users are greeted with a minimalist landing page, which reads, “while under construction, Gilga is a ‘nite-site’ operational hours are 8 p.m.-3 a.m.” During said hours, the website hosts a 60-second trailer for Atlanta season three. Set to Sun Ra’s “It’s After the End of the World,” the teaser begins with several shots of vacant museums, hotel rooms, and alleys throughout Europe. Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Alfred/Paper Boi, is the only actor present in the footage. Wearing a sweater that reads “FAKE,” he eerily stares into the camera from a long table, which is flanked by two uniformed employees staring at the walls.
It’s difficult to read the tone of Atlanta’s third season based on merely a minute of footage. Glover has previously compared the upcoming season to a specific Kanye West album: “I align the seasons I think, to me, like Kanye records,” Glover said at an Emmys panel back in 2018. “I feel like this [season three] is our Graduation. This is probably our most accessible, but also the realest — an honest version of it — and I feel like the most enjoyable, like the third album.” (It remains to be seen how or if recent West releases, including Jesus Is King and Donda, will factor into future seasons.)
Glover and fellow series stars Lakeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz are MIA in this first trailer. But the flashing of “2022” before the trailer’s end at least gives viewers a release date window. Fans may remember that the season two finale, which aired back in May 2018, ended with Paper Boi jetting off for his European tour. Filming for the third season began earlier this year, following pandemic-related delays involved with the show’s international setting.