Season 2 of the Spectrum drama Joe Pickett looks to present a bigger and better cast than its predecessor. Alita: Battle Angel star Keean Johnson has signed on as a series regular according to Deadline. Along with him, three of the show's returning cast members - Vivienne Guynn, Chad Rook, and Aadila Dosani—received a promotion to series regulars ahead of the second season.
Based on the series of novels of the same name by author C.J. Box, Joe Pickett follows the titular game warden portrayed by Michael Dorman who tries, along with his family, to survive in a small town nearing economic collapse. In the first season, the Pickett family was plunged headfirst into a mystery as a murder victim appears at their doorstep. Amidst the Wyoming wilderness, Joe teams up with the local sheriff's department and is left untangling a web of conspiracies and intrigue as he tries to figure out what is going in order to protect his beloved family.
Season 2 features two plot lines, one involving Joe and the other involving his wife Marybeth. Joe is left reeling after finding a dead hunter mockingly strung up and field-dressed like an elk. He makes the terrifying realization that someone in Saddlestring is going after hunters for sport. Meanwhile, Marybeth goes on her own investigation after a young Arapaho woman named Marissa Left Hand vanishes suddenly. Thompson will play Joe's new sidekick Luke Brueggeman, one of his Game and Fish trainees with a motormouth but a good heart. He's also not fond of horses and, per the description, he uses an "unconventional method" to round up drunk Elk. Guynn returns as Joe's adopted daughter April Keeley, Rook as the bumbling Deputy McLanahan, and Dosani as Cricket, a quirky deputy with a thing for a fugitive.
Joe Pickett was renewed for a second season at Spectrum back in February after it proved to be one of the streamer's top programs. In terms of Spectrum Originals, it ranked as the highest viewed in the platform's history and became its top original well before its first full season finished airing. The series also stars Coley Speaks, Skywalker Hughes, Sharon Lawrence, and Patrick Gallagher. John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle created the series and served as showrunners, directors, and executive producers alongside Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher of Red Wagon Entertainment and Box.
Johnson comes into Joe Pickett fresh off of filming American Tragedies: Waco - The Trials for Paramount+ which features him playing the young David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians who went by the alias of Vernon Howell at the time. Both Dowdles served as showrunners on the series, so there's definitely plenty of familiarity between Johnson and the creators. Before that, he also appeared in the HBO smash hit Euphoria and in Roland Emmerich's Midway.
The announcement comes with a slew of recurring stars for the new season, including Patrick Gallagher, Alex Breaux, Sean Wei Mah, John Ralston, Cheryl De Luca, Chris Gauthier, Emily Alabi, T’áncháy Redvers, and Aaron Dean Eisenberg.
Joe Pickett Season 2 has no release or production details out yet. Season 1 can be streamed in its entirety on Spectrum and Paramount+.