Cruel Summer Season 2 to Reboot With New Cast, Showrunner, and Storyline

Freeform’s hit series Cruel Summer is about to get remixed in a pretty major way. On Thursday, it was revealed that the live-action series has recently begun production on its second season, and will be doing so with an entirely new cast, showrunner, and storyline. The new cast of the series will include Sadie Stanley (The Goldbergs), newcomer Eloise Payet, Griffin Gluck (Locke & Key), KaDee Strickland (Private Practice), Lisa Yamada (All American), Sean Blakemore (Greenleaf) and Paul Adelstein (True Story). The season will also serve as a Private Practice reunion, with Adelstein, Strickland, and Gluck all previously appearing on that show. 

Season 2 of Cruel Summer will be set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest, and will follow the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship. Approaching the story from three different timelines surrounding Y2K, the season twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between Megan (Stanley), Isabella (Payet) and Megan’s best friend Luke (Gluck), the love triangle that blossomed, and the mystery that would impact all of their lives going forward. Strickland will play Debbie, Yamada will play Parker, and Blakemore will play Sheriff Mayer.

Season 1 of Cruel Summer starred Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee and Brooklyn Sudano. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cast of the first season knew that Cruel Summer could potentially become an anthology in its second season, but that that creative decision was not ultimately made until “some time after” the Season 1 finale.

Ellen Friedman, who previously worked on Freeform’s Siren and Guilt, will be serving as showrunner for Season 2, after showrunner Tia Napolitano departed to focus on her family. Napolitano, who joined on to the series after the pilot following creative differences between creator Bert V. Royal and a Freeform exec, will still serve as an executive producer on Season 2. 

“After getting season two of Cruel Summer up and running, Tia Napolitano has stepped back from the show, and as such, will no longer be serving as showrunner,” a representative said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Tia has been instrumental in the success of the show and will remain an executive producer.”

What do you think of Cruel Summer becoming an anthology in its second season? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!