With Season 2 of The Wilds set to hit Prime Video on May 6th, I got the chance to chat with creator-writer-executive producer Sarah Streicher and showrunner-writer-executive producer Amy B. Harris about their experience bringing the show to screen and figuring out how to evolve their initial plan for the narrative from season to season.
Season 2 of the series reveals the other half of Gretchen’s (Rachel Griffiths) experiment, the Twilight of Adam. Just like the members of the Dawn of Eve, the Twilight of Adam subjects think they’re boarding a flight to enjoy a retreat when, in reality, that plane is designed to “crash” and strand them on a deserted island. As the control group of the experiment, Gretchen is eager to see how the boys' approach to surviving on the island compares to the girls.
Before digging into the specifics of the second season, Streicher offered a little insight into her original pitch for the series to Amazon, revealing the length of her initial story idea:
“I think I pitched a four-season arc so, hint, hint, Amazon. [Laughs] And I always had in my mind loose vignettes. This is a coming of age story so when you’re crafting that, I think it’s important to have the beginning of immaturity and then the coming of age, the actual metamorphosis and the chrysalis moment, and then the coming of age coming out of that into some kind of adulthood or more maturity. We want to tell that whole story. So I didn’t so much think of how Gretchen’s conspiracy would devolve, but I definitely did craft vignettes of each character for what I wanted to see from them as they emerge from coming of age, how this experience formed them. And that kept me focused on the character level. Because I knew we could manipulate the conspiracy how we needed and how we thought Gretchen would go forward with that.”
Given the fact that Streicher is developing this story based on loose vignettes rather than the specifics of Gretchen’s operation, one can assume that gives her and Harris the opportunity to develop the story along the way based on lessons learned from production and the fan response to the material. What surprised them most about the reaction to Season 1? Harris went straight for a standout fan favorite component, the relationship between Toni (Erana James) and Shelby (Mia Healey).
“Obviously Shoni became something you always hope [for], but we hadn’t expected that. I think Sarah says this; we come in every day making sure we were honoring those women and sort of what they had come to mean to the fans.”
And that right there is just one of many beloved components of Season 1. Streicher, Harris, and the team assembled a top-notch ensemble of up-and-comers including James, Healey, Sarah Pidgeon, Reign Edwards, Helena Howard, Jenna Clause, Shannon Berry, and Sophia Ali, and the viewership fell hard for every single one of them. While the reveal of the Twilight of Adam control group raised intrigue and made a whole lot of sense narratively, there was some concern that expanding the cast to such an extent would take too much time away from the characters we came to know and love in Season 1. What’s the key to maintaining a satisfying balance between the two groups? Streicher began:
“I think when we were boarding stories it’s just, you have to look at the grid and be like, are our women getting the richness, the storylines that they deserve and that will continue to engage the fans? And also, they’re just never gonna leave our hearts and minds as the originators and the soul of the show. So we just were very intentional about that.”
On top of that, the nature of Gretchen’s experiment demands that you consider the Dawn of Eve with every single move the members of Twilight of Adam make. Here’s how Harris put it:
“I think we’re sort of in a weird way Gretchen, Sarah and I. And this is the only way we’re like Gretchen. The story of the women is sort of what inspired the show. The boys are the control group, so even when you’re watching the boys, I think you’re thinking, ‘Oh, the women found water this way,’ and, ‘Oh, they found sustenance this way.’ So the boys become a real counterpoint to the girls so I think it really allows the audience to feel like, even when you’re with the boys, you’re sort of watching them in comparison and counterpoint to the women you’ve already fallen in love with.”
Looking for more coverage of The Wilds Season 2? We’ll have many more conversations for you when the new season hits Prime Video on May 6th. Not only did we speak with the entire Dawn of Eve ensemble, but we also got to chat with the Twilight of Adam members as well — Alex Fitzalan, Tanner Ray Rook, Reed Shannon, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Charles Alexander, Nicholas Coombe, Aidan Laprete, and Zack Calderon. All of that and more coming your way soon!