Julien Doré will return in season 2 of Panda, starting January 9 at 9:10 p.m. on TF1 and is then expected on stage at the Montpellier Arena on March 15, 2025 and December 6, 2025. Interview.
How did you experience this return in Panda’s colorful shirt for this second season?
It’s a welcome return to these Camargue lands, with the sea, the bulls, the horses and all the fabulous scenery of my region. There was a lot of pleasure in also meeting the actors with whom I had the chance to do season 1. It was a very joyful set of things.
Panda is indeed celebrating this noon that saw you born. How did this decor come to be?
When it was offered to me, I asked for it to be located in the Camargue. It was one of the conditions for me to participate in the project.
I knew it was going to look beautiful in the picture. These Camargue settings are not present enough in this type of series. I really wanted these lands and these places in this region that I love so much, which saw me grow up.
It was important to me. And as with my clips, this also allows a lot of people from the region to work on the project.
Above all, I thought it was consistent with the universe they wanted to create. I wanted this character, as he was described to me, to find his bearings in my region.
What are the new challenges awaiting this offbeat investigator?
There are many, but above all they are personal challenges that will radically change his life. This is the particularity of this season 2, at the end of each episode, a revelation will keep us in suspense until the end of episode 6… I was very happy with this writing. There are many twists and turns in the life of this character and his comrades…
What can you tell us about the evolution of the relationships between the characters without spoiling?
It’s a bit tricky… Season 1 ends with a kiss between Lola and Panda, immediately cooled by the fact that she’s getting married. Season 2 starts from that, but things don’t necessarily always happen as we imagine.
This series has become TF1’s biggest success after HPI, what are its driving forces?
I think it’s this tenderness, this sunny, fun and joyful side, there’s a real contrast with the times in which we live. We live in a truly violent world. There is a lot of empathy between the characters in this series, that’s what makes it strong.
Do you see yourself in these values, carried by your character? What binds you?
A bit of everything. Frankly, just now I’m taking the TGV back home, apart from the flowered shirts that I don’t really wear at home, otherwise that’s how I am, with perhaps a little more caricature in the series, but it’s not far off.
I observe my surroundings with respect, a little calm, not in a hurry for time. I find myself in these values, tenderness, kindness and above all listening. We are in an era where we no longer even listen to the person who is speaking to us, we just want to shout our opinion on things. My mother and my grandmother taught me to listen to others, before forming an idea of what they think or what they are.
Panda carries this, a form of kindness and empathy towards human beings, animals, nature, it is a way of being on a daily basis rather generous and less closed in on ourselves than this era dictates us to be .
Is this environmental sensitivity a common thread in your career?
In any case, I realize it every day with humility in the Cévennes when I am facing these forests of white oaks, holm oaks, facing this magnificent starry sky, what surrounds us is extremely beautiful, extremely poetic and extremely strong. . I realize that I’m really not much.
Unfortunately we no longer take the time to observe the beautiful things that surround us today and this is also probably why we forget that they have immense value.
Did you have any references in mind when you took on this character?
Not really, I mainly wanted to make him a bit of an anti-hero, not pretentious, that he be touching and funny in spite of himself, that we could make fun of him but not in a mean way. Playing a big-armed cop didn’t really interest me. I really wanted this character to become a little laughable because he is so childish. I was always more amused by heroes who fell than those who succeeded.
What is your personal relationship with the series?
I’m more of a customer, depending on the time I have. And here I admit that for several months, I have been into music, writing, and directing my show. In the evening, when I have a little more time, I am with my family, my son. But I saw the series on the Loft (Cult) and The Bear, exceptional!
Will there be a Panda season 3?
It’s not in the pipes. There, what awaits me is my tour, already 60 Arena and Zénith planned undoubtedly until the beginning of 2026, including two in Montpellier (at the Arena, March 15 and December 6, 2025).
That’s the only thing in my head, to meet the audience on stage and offer them a crazy show for two hours, so that they can enjoy it, I can’t wait!
What will this new show look like?
It’s going to be as crazy as the previous one, with new ingredients and completely crazy effects. I’ve been working on the production for over a year. Musically, it will be a mix between my songs (Le Lac, Coco Câline, Paris Seychelles, etc.) and a few covers.
Your latest cover album breaks down barriers and rehabilitates sometimes snubbed titles in its own way. Is this one of the meanings of your approach?
Yes, I always had a big problem with people telling me what I should like or what I should hate. It always horrified me. So, in this album, I had fun by covering the songs that had made me feel good, that had made me want to make music, that had sometimes just accompanied me in moments of my life. I just needed this.
And above all, I wanted to respect them in the same way, to cover them with the same love and to put a little fun and humor into my clips and in the way I talk about them. I think that’s what made this album so successful, it went platinum in one month, it’s completely crazy.
It’s also a way of reminding myself that I’ve been making music for 17 years and I was born on La Nouvelle star, a TV show where I sang other people’s songs.
The title of the album, “Imposteur”, is a nod to a criticism received at the time of the show Nouvelle Star on M6?
Indeed, the starting point was articles at the time of “La Nouvelle Star” which considered me, with a bit of humor, as possibly being an imposter. It was fun. It’s a mixture of that and, at the same time, it’s a way of approaching the question of legitimacy.
We live in a time where, as citizens, we feel a lot of guilt, where the question of legitimacy arises, and also whether we have the right to be happy. Artists are also asking themselves the question of their legitimacy, fortunately. This is also why I question myself a lot, why I work so much.
And you always surprise yourself: how did this unexpected duet with Sharon Stone come together on “Paroles, Paroles” by Dalida?
I was in the studio and had the idea to start working on this track, that’s when I messaged him on Instagram. I couldn’t imagine for a second that she would read it and respond to me. Yet that is what happened.
Everything was done live via Instagram between her and I until we organized this moment and saw each other and recorded the title. I had an incredible day in the studio with her. But so was the starting point…
Ophélia Kolb, the other star of the series: “He’s a very attentive actor”
Popularized by the small screen (“Ten percent”), “molierized” (“The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams). seen around fifteen times in the cinema (Gainsbourg, Amanda, Docteur?, Le Lion), or even on Netflix (“Tapie”), Ophélia Kolb, 42, is the other star of “Panda”, where she plays Lola, tempestuous policewoman, the polar opposite of the very zen Victor Pandaloni (Julien Doré). Their duo sparks. “He is a very attentive actor, who makes a lot of suggestions and plays with everything that happens around him, the slightest movement, flutter of eyelashes, she confided to us, on the set in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. When I did the tests, there was something immediate and it’s even stronger in season 2, we understand each other very easily, we even remove lines because everything is in the eye.” Her character, Lola, will evolve. “She was more nervous in season 1, maybe she will be closer to what I can be in life, she announces. But “Panda” will distill “the same sweet and funny madness”.
