Freeform's popular teen drama thriller series Cruel Summer is back for Season 2, with another gut-wrenching teen storyline. Since the show (produced by Jessica Biel) is an anthology, the second season presents a whole set of new characters for fans to familiarize themselves with. The new season is centered on two best friends, Megan and Isabella, as they try to clear their names from a police investigation. Like Season 1, Season 2 features different timelines to showcase the main characters meeting for the first time, befriending each other, and becoming the primary targets in a twisty murder mystery. Read on for our breakdown of all the new faces in the latest season of Cruel Summer.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on June 16.
Sadie Stanley as Megan Landry
Megan Landry is a computer coder and a straight-A student who is used to keeping things on the down low. Once she meets Isabella, Megan gets out of her shell and begins to live in the moment. That is, until a tragic event makes her reconsider her newfound friendship, leaving her uncertain about who to trust.
Sadie Stanley stars as Megan in Cruel Summer Season 2, and she made her onscreen debut in Disney's live-action Kim Possible. Since then, the actress has had a recurring role in Dead to Me Season 2 and starred in Netflix's 2020 comedy The Sleepover. Before joining the cast of Freeform's hit series, she also appeared in various episodes of The Goldbergs. Here's what Sadie Stanley told Collider about the process of playing Megan across timelines:
Physically what’s going on, on the outside, is obviously a reflection of what’s happening to the character on the inside and what they’re going through. Even in the casting process, it was super important to everybody that each timeline felt really distinct and felt really different, not only for the audiences to be able to keep track, but also story wise, they’re in completely different times in their life and emotional states. That third timeline needs to feel so completely different than that first time that we meet Megan in Summer ‘99. She’s not the same anymore. Something really terrible has happened to her. Her life, and everything that she had planned for it, has dissolved right in front of her. It’s all in the scripts. It’s just about tapping into what it would be like, for a young girl to go through all those things, and everything on the outside helped a lot too. It’s also a learning curve for the audience. I remember watching the first season, and you had to get used to it and really make the connections, and then it feels easy to keep track.
Lexi Underwood as Isabella LaRue
Isabella LaRue is the daughter of foreign diplomats and an exchange student spending a year at the Landry household. Extroverted and oftentimes alluring, Isabella is responsible for encouraging Megan to leave her comfort zone and become more of a free spirit like herself. When a body is found inside a black bag in the lake, she is quick to come up to Megan and make sure that they get their stories straight when the police begin to suspect their involvement in the case.
Lexi Underwood ignited her career with her breakout role in Little Fires Everywhere, acting opposite Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Her performance as Pearl Warren even lead her to be nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance by a Youth in 2021. She also starred as Malia Obama in The First Lady and as Kira King, the lead in Disney's Sneakerella. In the same interview with Collider, Underwood talked about how much of her character's secrets she was aware of while filming for the series:
I knew a couple of the secrets, but they didn’t have all the scripts written, so I only knew bits and pieces of it. But based off of my interpretation of how I would go about that secret, that helped them really shape out what the full lie or secret would actually be. But I was really in the dark about it. I had to trust the showrunner and trust my character, as well.
Griffin Gluck as Luke Chambers
Luke Chambers is Megan's lifelong best friend and part of a very wealthy family. Throughout the episodes, Luke tries to leave his mark in the world, outside his parents' expectations. He will also get in between Megan and Isabella in a love triangle.
Griffin Gluck, who plays Luke Chambers, kicked off his career with the 2019 comedy Just Go With It, starring opposite Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. Since then, he has worked with Sydney Sweeney and Pete Davidson in Big Time Adolescence and was a series regular on Netflix's Locke and Key, which released its final season in 2022. Here's what Gluck told Collider about playing Luke:
He’s hard to pinpoint. You never know exactly how he’s feeling. He’s confused. He’s figuring it out himself. So, bouncing between one love and another love, and how one affects the other, it’s fun because, as we were shooting, we were seeing it develop, and as you’re watching it, you see it develop. You see how these two people change him, and how he changes them. It was difficult, for sure, but it was great to have such good scene partners. If you can’t figure it out, once you get in the room and the cameras are rolling and you’re in that moment, it’s a lot easier to figure out together.
KaDee Strickland as Debbie Landry
Debbie Landry is Megan's mother and Isabella's host mother during her exchange program. As a single parent, she has a lot on her plate taking care of a girl in her teens. To help Megan expand her horizons, Debbie welcomes Isabella into her household. Little does she know that things would turn upside down from the moment this exchange student comes into their world.
KaDee Strickland is a veteran when it comes to TV, having played Charlotte King in ABC's Private Practice from 2007-2013. She also participated in Secrets and Lies and played the lead in Hulu's Shut Eye. She is also known for her performances in films such as Fever Pitch and Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid.
Paul Adelstein as Steve Chambers
Steve Chambers is Luke's father and a powerful figure in Chattam. The character is played by Paul Adelstein, who is best known for the role of Agent Paul Kellerman in Prison Break. Like KaDee Strickland, the actor also starred in Private Practice, playing Cooper Freedman.
Sean Blakemore as Sheriff Meyer
Sheriff Meyer is an old-fashioned cop who finds himself responsible for investigating the first major crime in Chattam. He shows a mentor-like relationship with Luke, who has a strenuous relationship with his father. As the police officer in charge of the investigation, it doesn't take him long to zero in on Megan and Isabella, knowing everything he knows about their past.
Before Sean Blakemore joined the cast of Cruel Summer Season 2, he played Sean Butler on the ABC series General Hospital. This role led the actor to get his first Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2012, and he also won the award later on, in 2016. He also appeared in other procedural TV shows, such as NCIS, ER, and Monk.
Lisa Yamada as Parker Tanaka
Parker Tanaka is a popular musician and fashion icon in her social circle. Although she does come off as a mean girl, Parker also has her insecurities and often seeks validation from the people around her.
After appearing in other well-known projects like Never Have I Ever and All American, Lisa Yamada is starring alongside her former Little Fires Everywhere co-star Lexi Underwood in Cruel Summer Season 2. She is currently also working with Tommy Dorfman on the upcoming YA film I Wish You All the Best, which follows a teen on a journey of self-discovery after being kicked out of their parent's house.
Braeden De La Garza as Brent Chambers
Brent is Luke's older brother and the entitled "favorite son" of the Chambers household. The character is played by Braeden De La Garza, who has previously played Prince Emmett in the Disney+ series The Quest (2022), one of the many shows purged from the service in May 2023.
Cruel Summer Season 2 premiered on June 5 on Freeform at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Subsequent episodes are being released weekly in the 10 p.m. slot, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.