‘Cruel Summer’ Becomes an Anthology With an All-New Cast & Mystery for Season 2

Freeform’s Cruel Summer is becoming an anthology when it returns for its second season later this year. (The drama was renewed the day of the Season 1 finale in June 2021.)

The network has announced that Season 2 will feature an all-new cast, led by Sadie Stanley, Griffin Gluck, and newcomer Eloise Payet — and reuniting Private Practice‘s KaDee Strickland, Paul Adelstein, and Gluck — and an all-new mystery. It will once again include multiple timelines. This comes after the first season of the series, executive produced by Jessica Biel and Michelle Purple through Iron Ocean Productions and from studio eOne, was Freeform’s most-watched series in network history.

This next chapter is set in an idyllic waterfront town in the Pacific Northwest and “follows the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship,” according to Freeform. “Approaching the story from three different timelines surrounding Y2K, the season twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between Megan, Isabella and Megan’s best friend Luke, the love triangle that blossomed, and the mystery that would impact all of their lives going forward.”

Stanley will play Megan Landry, who is a computer coder and honor student from a blue-collar family. When she meets Isabella (Payet), she beings living in the moment and embracing her true self, but when tragedy strikes, her long-held dreams are dashed and she won’t know who she can trust. Isabella, meanwhile, is described as “alluring and enigmatic.” Her parents are foreign diplomats, and she’s spending a year as an exchange student with the Landry family. While she does shake things up in the small town, she can’t use her charm to hide the truth about her past or the real reason she’s living with the Landrys forever. And Gluck’s Luke Chambers comes from a prominent family. He finds himself at a crossroads when he tries to find his own place in the world away from his powerful father’s expectations.

Season 2 also stars Strickland as Megan’s hardworking single mother Debbie, who thinks having Isabella stay with them will open her daughter’s eyes to the world beyond their town; Lisa Yamada as popular musician Parker, who becomes more cynical as the world takes a dark turn around her; Sean Blakemore as Sheriff Myer, an old-fashioned law-and-order type who is under pressure to solve the first major crime in Chatham; and Adelstein, recurring as Luke’s father, Steve, whose influence in town is far-reaching.

Cruel Summer comes from studio eOne and was created by Bert V. Royal. Elle Triedman serves as showrunner. Executive producers include Triedman, Bill Purple, Tia Napolitano, Biel, and Michelle Purple.

Cruel Summer, Season 2, TBA, Freeform