Ryan Murphy on What It Means to Have ‘Pose’ Season 1 on Netflix

Television is about to get a hell of a lot more fabulous with the return of Pose. Co-created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals, FX’s drama about the LGBTQ+ community in the late ’80s and early ’90s is a gorgeous ode to the ballroom scene and chosen family. And now that Season 1 has made its way to streaming, Season 2’s audience is sure to be bigger than ever.

At the set visit for Pose Season 2, Murphy and Canals spoke to a group of reporters about what they thought Pose‘s recent addition to Netflix meant for the show. “It actually sold after I went to Netflix, but it wasn’t a part of my deal,” Murphy said. In February of 2018 it was announced that the super producer had signed a $300 million exclusive deal with Netflix. Under this new deal Murphy would continue to develop new seasons for his ongoing FX and Fox projects, which include Pose, 9-1-1, American Horror Story, and American Crime Story. However, all of Murphy’s new projects will be Netflix originals.

Though its not uncommon for an FX original to find one of its streaming homes on Netflix, Pose‘s addition to Netflix is surprising in the wake of Murphy’s deal and Disney’s recent acquisition of Fox. Once FX’s shows complete their SVOD run that’s when services can purchase their streaming rights. Typically FX series end up on Hulu, which is now predominantly owned by the same company that owns FX. That’s not what happened with Pose Season 1, which was aded to Netflix on May 10. Season 1 of the series is also available on FX’s own streaming platform, FX+.

“You know close to 200 million people will now have access to this show,” Murphy said, banging the table for emphasis. “And the other thing I think is amazing is what would I have done if I was 12, if I had had access to this kind of material and I felt that I wasn’t alone and that there were people like me? So that’s why I was excited to sell it to them.

“That’s why I’m excited to do anything with them because the access they provide and the ability to get into households where you couldn’t have done this before,” Murphy continued. “And also this show will be seen in many, many countries where being gay or trans is illegal. And I think that’s a very powerful thing.”

Pose co-creator Steven Canals echoed his creative partner’s excitement. “There have been so many folks, particularly young LGBTQ+, people who don’t have the resources to access the show. You know, they can’t afford cable so they can’t watch it on FX,” Canals said. “I have a friend of a friend who works at a LGBTQ+ resource center in San Francisco who said that the center actually just bought the season and that every week they were doing screenings so that young LGBTQ+ people could watch it.”

Getting such a powerful show to a wider audience is seen as nothing but positive. “Everyone has Netflix and if you don’t everyone knows someone who has a password,” Canals added. “You will find it.”

Murphy was careful not to criticize Pose’s current audience but rather to celebrate Netflix’s reach. “I think it did very well for FX and has sort of done very well foreign, but this is I think a different level of accessibility. And you know we’ve seen the Netflix effect where something is doing OK, gets on there, and then suddenly explodes,” Murphy explained. “And I have that feeling about this show because I feel like — and it’s a weird thing to say — but this is really a show that you can watch with your kids. It’s a family show. It was by design made to be that way. It has some sexuality and some language, but it’s a great thing to put out into the world. I’m proud of it.”

New episodes of Pose Season 2 premiere on FX Tuesdays at 10/9c.

Where to stream Pose