Just listen. There’s magic here.
Welcome home to Ransom Canyon. In Season 2 of the soapy series, Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly) and Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) reunite after she’s spent six months in New York City working as a concert pianist. Settle back into Ransom Canyon, coming to Netflix July 23, with the Season 2 trailer above and the exclusive photos below.
“We have these three tenets, which are land, love, and legacy,” says showrunner, executive producer, and writer April Blair. “We stick with that — and we have a little more fun this season.”
In Season 1, Quinn and stoic rancher Staten finally get together after decades of crackling will they, won’t they tension. But their tenuous romance soon collapses under the weight of Staten’s trauma over losing his wife and son years ago, and they break up before Quinn heads off to the Big Apple.
Now that Quinn’s back, Staten’s ready to fight to win her back. “He wants to make it right,” says Duhamel. “He’s willing to accept a lot of the responsibility for what happened.” After all the loss and pain Staten endures in Season 1, Duhamel promises a lighter side of the character in the new installment. “My character isn’t as sullen as he was last year,” he swears. “He’s much more out of his shell. He has fun.” That being said, he definitely has his hands full with his manipulative dad, Sam Kirkland (Brett Cullen).
But it might be too late — Quinn has started up with Oliver (Ben Robson), a mysterious, accented new man, and he’s asked her to marry him. “Just when you’re like, ‘I give up on men. I want to be with myself,’ that’s when they smell you out,” jokes Kelly. “They’re like, ‘What was that thing you said about being alone?’”
Quinn and Staten are far from the only two Ransom natives ensnared in a love triangle. At the end of Season 1, a woman shows up claiming to be the wife of Yancy Grey (Jack Schumacher). Yancy and his current girlfriend, Ellie (Marianly Tejada), are left shell-shocked. Now you can meet a red-corseted Sidney (Heidi Grace Engerman) in the trailer and learn how she’s a part of Yancy’s old life — which he’s desperate to put behind him.
In Season 2, Lauren (Lizzy Greene) is coming off the devastating reveal that her mom, Margaret (Sarah Minnich), was drunk behind the wheel the night Staten’s son died. She seems lost in the trailer — so much so that she’s cozying up to Kit (Casey W. Johnson), otherwise known as her boyfriend Lucas’s (Garrett Wareing) brother. “She finds herself increasingly drawn to the worst person she could possibly be drawn to,” says Blair. “She’s caught in this pull between these two young men who represent different things for her.” If you need help keeping all these characters straight, refresh your memory with the cast guide.
The trailer also introduces Ransom’s newcomers: Season 2 lassoed the legendary actor Patricia Clarkson to play Claire O’Grady, Quinn’s complicated mother. “Working with Patricia was a dream,” says Kelly. “I remember when April said that they got her, I couldn’t believe it.”
Steve Howey also joins the cast as Staten’s half-brother, Levi, which is fitting since he and Duhamel go way back. “I’ve known that dude since the early 2000s. I actually recommended him for the part,” says Duhamel. “He came in and did an amazing job.” Meet the new characters played by Robson, Engerman, Howey, Clarkson, and more in the trailer.
And that’s not all! Country legends Thomas Rhett and Jordan Davis take the stage in Season 2 to continue Season 1’s Charley Crockett–led tradition of tunes. How will these award-winning superstars shake up the small town? Will Quinn play a few notes on the piano during Rhett’s “Ain’t a Bad Life”?
Kelly and Duhamel both welcomed the return to Ransom. “There’s so much trauma in our world right now,” says Kelly. “That small town yumminess is really attractive to me right now. We all love this story and these characters so much, and we love working for April. This is the best job in the world.”
And of course, because this is Ransom Canyon, that “small town yumminess” entails a slew of “hot men everywhere,” as Ellie says. See for yourself in the trailer above. “I looked around, and it’s shirtless dudes everywhere,” says Duhamel. “It’s like a man-tage.”
Watch Ransom Canyon Season 2 on Netflix on July 23.
