Raven’s Home makes its triumphant return to Disney Channel on June 25 with a brand-new episode. It’s been many months — 8 MONTHS! — since the last episode of the hit show aired, and we’ve missed the Raven, Chelsea, Nia, and the rest of the crew. HollywoodLife talked EXCLUSIVELY with the lovely Navia Robinson about what season 2 holds in store for fans.
“I think we want to stress the girl power element, because it’s so important,” Navia told HollywoodLife. “I think our show really embodies that, because it’s about two single moms raising their kids together, and it’s important to see how strong women can be, how strong anyone can be… The second season is going to be more authentic to the original show as well. We want to make it more about real world issues. We want to show that it’s OK if you don’t have a traditional family, because nowadays there aren’t that many traditional families. It’s important for kids and adults alike to see that represented on a show and a channel that’s so universal to that.”
Nia and Tess are growing up, just as we watched Raven and Chelsea grow up on That’s So Raven. Navia revealed her hopes for the BFFs in season 2: “I just want them to grow together. With your best friend, you grow with them. You have different experiences that are going to shape you, and I think that’s important for best friends to see.”
Raven-Symoné, who plays titular character, has also taught Navia so much about acting. “She’s taught me so many acting techniques, and she’s taught me to step out of the box that I’ve been in before,” Navia said. “Before Raven’s Home, I hadn’t done a sitcom. I had done more dramatic series, because I had been taught to do that, I had known comedy. I’d always loved it as much as I loved to do more dramatic things, but I’d never filmed a project that was a sitcom. Raven taught me so many great things about timing and timing. Anneliese [van der Pol] did as well. They’re both fantastic comedians, who know their stuff and know their timing, who know how to to say each line, when to put inflections on certain words. It helps you a lot, even if you want to do dramatic series. You always have a funny line you have to say. They helped us learn how to deliver them properly.”
So what about a musical episode? We’re all aware that the cast is super talented! “We’ve already talked about it,” Navia continued. “Me and all the the other cast members have said to the producers that we need to do a musical episode. There’s so many vocal talents within the cast. We can all do something that’s musical, and I think that would be an amazing episode. We can showcase our strong suits together.”