NatGeo has crowned Pablo Picasso its next Genius, letting the famous painter and sculptor take the reins from Albert Einstein. “The remarkable story of artistic visionary Pablo Picasso is the perfect subject for season two of Genius,” executive producer Ron Howard said in a statement.
According to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Ken Biller defended the choice not to make the second season about a genius woman during a conference call with reporters, arguing that “history has not remembered a lot of them” and thereby “the pool from which to choose is smaller.” He did say that eventually the show will get around to tackling a woman, and for now female characters in Picasso’s orbit will be featured. (Presumably with their eyes in all the right places.)
In explaining why Picasso was the man for the honor, Biller said that the creative team “felt that his story, which is really rich and emotional and passionate and controversial, would not only allow us to expand the palette (no pun intended) what the show Genius is but would allow us to tell, because his life is so turbulent and interesting, a really rich, compelling, and fascinating story.” While a Picasso has yet to be cast, new episodes are due in 2018.