The opening season of Asia’s first-ever gay parenting series, Papa & Daddy ended with the shocking revelation that before Damian came back to Taiwan and started a family with Jerry, he was originally married to a woman in the United States and had a child with her.
Left shocked, confused, and heartbroken upon knowing the truth, Jerry was ultimately seen leaving for his childhood home in Hualien in the final episode of the first season—a cliffhanger that has fans across Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and North America clamoring for a second season to know just what will happen next.
After a long endless wait, fans of the series were finally given access to the first set of images from the new season on Wednesday and immediately upon its release, there was a tidal wave of interest from its followers and the media, asking just one major question, “Why isn’t Mike Lin in any of these photos?”, “Where’s the original Jerry?” One fan from abroad even mistook the sixteen-year-old Richard Lin, cast as Jimmy, Damian’s other son, for this season’s new Jerry!
In the first season of Papa & Daddy, Jerry was played by Mike Lin, who was featured on films such as The Outsiders and Girl’s Revenge and was a presenter at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards. While filming the first season, Lin built an excellent relationship with the series director, Nancy Chen, and the rest of the cast and crew, all the while turning in a performance that won wide praise from both his fans and critics. Unfortunately and unavoidably, there was a major conflict in the schedule between the second season of Papa & Daddy and another show that Lin was filming for. And after much discussion and many attempts to resolve the issue, the only solution was to submit to the inevitable and recast Jerry.
Luckily, not long after beginning the casting procedures for the second season, director Nancy Chen hit upon the talented Chiu Mu-Han, who has previously appeared in the bonafide hit Twa Tiu Tiann (which took in more than NT$150m at the box office), as well as Tears on Fire, Go Lala Go 2, The Fearless, Under One Roof, No Regrets in Life, and numerous other short films. Chen saw in Chiu Mu-Han a star-in-waiting with enormous potential, and therefore contacted him to ask him if he would be interested in taking on the role of Jerry for the second season. To this, Chen stated, “The first time we met, I thought he looked just how I imagined him to be—very much like Jerry. But in the second season, Jerry goes through and experiences more complicated and mature emotions, so I asked Mu-Han to familiarize himself with the script before coming in for his audition.”
After a few days of practice and getting into character, Chiu Mu-Han went through his audition and immediately wowed everyone present at the set with director Chen expressing all praise for the actor, “Mu-Han brought out a serene side of Jerry. His emotional expression was both moving and detailed, and he successfully showed a complete grasp of Jerry’s internal world.”
As for the actor himself, Mu-Han said, “Of course, I was worried that my acting style was too different from Mike’s, which might’ve made it take a while to get used to the changeover. But as it happens, we play Jerry in two different states of mind, so the director asked me to interpret the role in my own way. If the result is a different version of Jerry, that’s perfectly fine.”