Aziz Ansari's Master Of None to return

EXCLUSIVE: Season three to be shot in London

Aziz Ansari's Master Of None is to return for a third series, this time shot in London, Chortle can reveal.

Four years after the last episodes of the Netflix comedy-drama, the comic will once again return as Dev Shah, the thirty-something actor struggling with his romantic and professional life.

Chortle understands that British actor Naomi Ackie, who won a Bafta for her performance in The End of the F**ing World and who will play Whitney Houston in the forthcoming film biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody, is attached to join the cast, presumably as Dev's latest love interest.

Lena Waithe is also set to reprise her role as his friend Denise.

Ansari, who also directs the show, and co-creator Alan Yang started production on series three in London last spring, but work was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The second series was filmed in Italy and New York, and Ansari coyly hinted at the show's return in a video interview with the television and film blog Spettacolo Italiano in May. Responding to a direct question about the third series, he said: ‘If I'm not writing something now [during lockdown], it's pretty lazy right?'

The final episode finished ambiguously, with Dev and Francesca (Alessandra Mastronadi) seemingly on the verge of breaking up after she removed her engagement ring.

Series two also had a sexual harassment storyline centred on TV chef Jeff, played by Bobby Carnavale.

Ansari has kept a low profile since allegations of his own sexual misconduct emerged in 2018. He addressed these and the backlash against him, to an extent, in his 2019 stand-up tour and his Netflix special Right Now, released the following year.

Cindy Holland, Netflix's head of original content at the time the allegations were made anonymously on the Babe.net website, publicly backed Ansari, stating that the streaming giant was interested in making a third series of Master Of None 'when Aziz is ready'.

Ansari had told the Vulture website in 2017 that: 'I don't know if we're going to do a season three. I wouldn't be surprised if I needed a looonng [sic] break before I could come back to it.

'I've got to become a different guy before I write a third season, is my personal thought, I've got to get married or have a kid or something. I don't have anything else to say about being a young guy being single in New York eating food around town all the time.'

Despite retreating from the public eye, he did reunite with his Parks and Recreation castmates for a one-off charity special episode in April, filmed under lockdown conditions.

All seven series of the acclaimed mockumentary, in which he plays shallow local government official Tom Haverford, will be available on Netflix in the UK and Ireland from February 1.

Chortle approached Netflix for comment on the return of Master Of None, but it has not responded.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 7 Jan 2021

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