It’s official: UNTAMED is coming back for another season.
The new season is now in production on O’ahu and the island of Hawaii. Above and below, you can check out a set of images of the Hawaiian blessing held last week to mark the beginning of production.
Bana (The Dry, Munich) will return as Kyle Turner, Investigative Services Branch (ISB) agent of the National Parks Service. In Season 2 of the series, co-created by Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith, the grizzled park veteran will be investigating a whole new mystery.
“Elle and I envisioned it as a stand-alone six episodes,” Mark L. Smith tells Tudum of the first season. “But then the more that we got into it, it was such a great cast … it was just like, ‘Oh yeah, how do we keep this going?’ ”
In Season 2, Bana will also be joined by a new cast of friends and foes — starting with new additions Shea Whigham (American Primeval, F1) and Kelly Hu (BMF, Finding ‘Ohana). Hu plays Awapuhi. Born and raised on Hawaii Island, she’s spent the last few years in Oahu grappling with the death of her son. Now she’s returning to the Big Island to face the demons she left behind. Whigham will play businessman Ray Burkart, a bereaved father who clashes with Turner over the investigation into his son’s murder. Burkart moved from California to the Big Island of Hawaii 30 years ago, and has a hand in various businesses — some more legal than others.
The cast and crew are just as excited to carry UNTAMED into the future as fans are. “I am absolutely thrilled that we get the chance to bring another season of UNTAMED to life,” Bana said in a statement. “The response to Season 1 has been a testament to the incredible effort by our crew to deliver something truly unique. I can’t wait to take Kyle on his next journey. Massive thanks to Netflix, John Wells Productions, Warner Bros. Television, and our fans.”
Read on for more information about UNTAMED Season 2, including which park Turner will be investigating this time around.
In its second season, the hit series follows Special Agent Turner as he’s called to investigate a mysterious death in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, where local tensions and the volatile, living landscape become an unpredictable force.
So far, the cast of UNTAMED Season 2 includes:
Turner will be getting to know a new park and its inhabitants. “We’re going to make sure we populate it with characters that are interesting and help him in ways both good and bad,” Mark L. Smith says.
The first season of UNTAMED saw Turner investigate a death in his home territory: Yosemite National Park. But Season 2 sees him getting out of his comfort zone. At the end of Season 1, having solved one of the most devastating cases of his career, Turner finally leaves Yosemite and hits the road. It’s a moment of catharsis for the character, as he lets go of years of emotional baggage he’s stored in the park’s wilderness.
The next time we see him, Turner will have taken a hop to the middle of the Pacific — to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park.
His exodus is a realistic narrative turn for the series; real-life ISB agents routinely travel from park to park. In fact, Turner will have made his way to quite a few before landing at his Season 2 destination. “This won’t be the first park he’s been in since Yosemite,” Mark L. Smith says. “He’s been to a lot of parks. He’s been busy, taking on a lot of cases. This will be the latest, and it'll be more impactful for him.”
The shift in scenery means Turner will be far less at home in the wilderness. In Season 2, he takes on a role more similar to his rookie sidekick, Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago) in Season 1.
“Turner was so comfortable in Yosemite,” Smith says. “He was the one leading this charge, and people followed him. And now, [we’re] putting Kyle on his back foot, making him very uncomfortable. This time we get to follow Turner into a park and let him lead us, and we stumble along with him as he’s kind of finding his way.”
There’s no release date yet, but stay tuned for more information about UNTAMED Season 2, now in production.
