Atlanta season 2 trailer and release date: Why the show's second season is called Robbin' Season

Donald Glover is pushing Atlanta in new directions with its second season, and that starts with the name.

The first trailer has revealed that it won't be called season 2 but "Robbin' season", a term, originating in Atlanta itself, for the period leading up to Christmas when there's a big spike in domestic robberies.

"People have gifts, have more stuff, and money,” Stephen Glover said at a Television Critics Association panel in Pasadena on Friday, Donald's brother and the show's executive producer and writer.

"You might get your package stolen off your front porch. While we were there, my neighbor got her car stolen from her driveway. It’s a very tense and desperate time. Our characters are in a desperate transition from their old lives to where they’re headed now. And robbin’ season is a metaphor to where we are now."

“Are you gonna eat or are you gonna be eaten?” Donald Glover explained. “I think that’s something people don’t realize. Black people have to make a choice. That choice defines who you are. It’s hard."

The metaphor would seem to apply to Paper Boi now that he's achieving low-level fame.

"Am I gonna sell drugs or am I gonna be a celebrity? You can't do both. You can’t be a famous drug dealer. I mean, you can, but it’s not gonna work out well."

There was a loose and experimental feel to the first season, one episode centring exclusively on Van, another taking place entirely within a BET-style TV show. Robbin' Season will apparently have a central story, however, though the episodes will still have a standalone feel - a concept they got from, of all places, a Looney Toons movie.

“Tiny Toons Summer Vacation was broken up into a bunch of episodes, but if you watched them all together they were a movie," Stephen said. "We took that idea. It’s a whole story, but told in a bunch of little parts."

“You can enjoy them more when they’re together, but you can also enjoy them in little bits," Donald added.

"If you do that as a producer of television, or any art, you tend to be risk-adverse, which I think is really bad for art. So we didn’t look back and think, What are the things that will make people happy? We really just tried to beat ourselves. Hiro [Murai, director] was a big pusher of that."

Atlanta returns for Season 2 aka. Robbin’ Season, on 1 March in the US on FX.