8 Things You Need to Know About Mr. Robot Season 2

It's heeere.

The season two premiere date was released in the first teaser: July 13.

While Mr. Robot turns out to be a figment of Elliot's imagination, that doesn't mean we won't get to see him anymore! Slater will certainly be back for the next season. In fact, he spoke about Elliot's relationship with Mr. Robot during an interview with IndieWire last year: "It'll be very interesting to see where it does go and how [creator Sam Esmail] is going to continue to develop this relationship." Interesting indeed.

It was announced back in January that Gummer would be joining the show in its second season. The American Horror Story actress will play Dominique “Dom” DiPierro, an FBI agent looking into the Evil Corp hack that Elliot orchestrated.

During the show's panel at SXSW, Esmail mentioned that he's working with the FBI Cyber Crime unit to make the second season as authentic as possible. In fact, two plot points from the new season are directly inspired by stories shared by the FBI.

Robinson is the latest big name to sign on for Mr. Robot. His character is Ray, a local in Elliot's neighborhood. Additionally, rapper Joey Bada$$ is making his small-screen debut as Leon, a friend of Elliot's.

Stephanie Corneliussen, who plays the cold Joanna Wellick, has been promoted to series regular, along with Michael Cristofer, who plays Evil Corp exec Phillip Price.

Not only will be be seeing more of Joanna, but she has a new man in her life: Derek (played by Chris Conroy).

If you were shocked when you found out that Mr. Robot isn't real, imagine how Elliot feels. "The whole show’s been about Elliot’s emotional journey and I really wanted to focus on that and make it less about the plot," Esmail said during the show's panel at the Television Critics Association. "That’s the struggle that is going to take over in season two. . . . There will be a lot more backstory that will be shown, and the timeline will get a little clearer. Not a hundred percent clearer, but a little clearer."

"Elliot committed a crime in the first season, and we're going to see ramifications of that in the second season," said Esmail at SXSW. "That drives a lot of what the second season is all about."

Also during the show's TCA panel, Esmail revealed that we'll find out what other things that "happen" in season one are really just figments of Elliot's imagination.

Esmail said at SXSW that he's treating season two less like a TV series and more like an extended feature film. All of the episodes have already been written, and they're shooting all their scenes in each location at once, rather than shooting the season chronologically. "Never before have I had a read-through of the whole season," Slater said. "It was a 12-hour read-through. I’ve never seen anything like that."

While it won't directly incorporate elements of Apple CEO Tim Cook's battle with the feds over not unlocking the phones of the San Bernadino shooters, season two is influenced by the news item. "I think it's a really important issue that we’re going to really get into in the next ten years, and it’s not something that I think people really understand the nuances of," Esmail said at SXSW. "It really brings up that idea of the rights to privacy, and do we have that or do we not?"

Creator Sam Esmail confirmed that production on season two was officially underway on March 7 by tweeting a picture of the set.