Shannara Chronicles Season 2: Trailer, Release Date, Cast

The Shannara Chronicles will be moving from MTV to Spike for Season 2. Here’s everything we know about the upcoming season…

Shannara Chronicles Season 2 Trailer

The Shannara Chronicles Season 2 trailer is here! We’re getting some serious The 100 vibes from this thing, which includes glimpses at some important new characters and a very intriguing shot of Amberle falling through the ether (or, you know, Ellcrys). Check it out…

Entertainment Weekly also has some photos from the new season…

Shanara Chronicles Season 2 Release Date

The Shannara Chronicles Season 2 will premiere on Spike on October 11th at 10 p.m. ET. 

Shannara Chronicles Season 2 Cast

In the first season, The Shannara Chronicles starred Arrow’sManu Bennett, Pan’s Labyrinth’sIvana Basquero, The Carrie Diaries’Austin Butler (also know as Thea Queen’s DJ assassin boyfriend), and relative newcomer Poppy Drayton. Of course, the fate of Drayton’s Amberle was very much in-the-air come the season one finale.

Returning for Season 2 from the original Season 1 cast will be: Austin Butler (Wil), Ivana Baquero (Eretria), Manu Bennett (Allanon), Aaron Jakubenko (Ander) and Marcus Vanco (Bandon).

Speaking to Hypable about her character’s arc in Season 2, Baquero said: “I think for Eretria this season is mainly about discovering where she comes from, who she is, who her parents really were, what the tattoo means… There’s a lot of that in this new season.”

The Shannara ChroniclesSeason 2 will pick up a year after the events of Season 1, and finds The Four Lands in chaos, with an organization called The Crimson is intent on hunting down magic users.

Amidst the unrest, Will, still mourning the loss of Amberle and his separation from Eretria, has turned his back on his magical healer destiny. Meanwhile, Bandon has turned super evil and is on a mission to resurrect The Warlock Lord. (No, The Warlock Lord is not a nice guy.)  

Hypable caught up with Ivana Baquero (aka Eretria) recently to talk Shannara Chronicles Season 2. Baquero teased: “I can say that Wil is indeed looking for Eretria. So that’s still happening. And we will discover who the person is that she sees down in the tunnels with the Trolls.”

More generally, Baquero said of Season 2’s structure: “There’s a lot of new evil and new elements coming up. So rather than being one quest and one story, now there’s a lot of storylines trying to contain this evil that’s trying to take over the world. It’s going to be very interesting.”

There’s a whole host of new characters this season. As Baquero described it: “We’ve got new girls, new boys… We got Gentry [White,] Malese [Jow,] Vanessa [Morgan]… Obviously, they’re great additions. And it;s great to have new people now that we’ve lost others. So I don’t necessarily feel like I’m the only female lead. There’s a lot of people involved.” 

Here are all of the new characters to look forward to…

According to MTV News, Malese Jow (The Flash, The Vampire Diaries) has joined the Shannara ChroniclesSeason 2 cast as Mareth, a “volatile and unpredictable” young woman with magical powers who will help Wil find his way back to his friends and escape The Crimson. “Sharp, brash, and independent to a fault,” Mareth knows how to get what she wants.

Also joining the cast is Vanessa Morgan (Finding Carter) as Lyria, a young woman romatically linked to Eretria. Nice to see Eretria getting some love, especially amongst all of the danger and mayhem it sounds like we’re in for in Season 2.

Speaking to Hypable about the same sex relationship between Erertia and Lyria, Baquero said:

What I love about the show is that [sexuality] is so natural. It’s not even a thing. It’s normalized and it’s great. I think if anything there would be more of an issue if she were to go out with an Elf, because of the elitism and the difference in class …

It’s not something that is frowned upon by anyone. It’s what it is. It’s been normalized. I think that’s great and I hope it reflects the future in a way. Crossed fingers.

Gentry White (UnReal) will play Garet, the “wise-cracking Weapons Master of the Four Lands.” Garet is a bounty hunter, “skilled, sly, and charismatic,” it sounds like Garet could add some comedic elements to Season 2.

Caaroline Chikezie (Everly) will play Queen Tamlin, “the powerful and cunning ruler of Leah,” and the only human kingdom in The Four Lands. Queen Tamlin is a ruthless weapons manufacturer who uses her royal clout to make a political alliance with the elves. Ambitious lady.

Desmond Chiam (Bones) has been added to the Shannara Chroniclescast as General Riga, the leader of the extremist soldier group The Crimson. On a mission to wipe out all magic in the Four Lands, Rigam used to be a top dog in Eventine’s army, but has had a major change of heart after watching his people slaughtered in the War of the Races and fighting the Dagda Mor in the War of the Forbidding. This guy does not like magic.

Will Amberle Be Back in Shannara Chronicles Season 2?

You may have noticed that Drayton’s Amberle isn’t on that cast list, but we’re not ready to give up hope on her character’s non-tree-form return just yet… especially because there is a sneak peek of the character in the new trailer.

Speaking to SciFiNow about the possible return of Amberle, Brooks teased:

Yeah, actually, although you might wonder how, and I won’t tell you, but we gave some serious thought to that, and there was a lot of talk about bringing her back out of the tree and so forth, but I said ‘No, she’s a tree [laughs], you can’t bring her back, that’s terrible storytelling, you have to find a different way.’ So then I told them how they could do it, so we’ll see.

But yeah, I think she’s signed on for another season or so, and she’ll back for that. I know that she probably wishes she’d gotten a different role, because she really liked the series, but her life was finite in that particular storyline.

More recently, Brooks told Just Jared Jr. about a possible Amberle (or at least Poppy Drayton) return:

I will say that once a chosen becomes the ellcrys tree, they are always the tree. You’ll just have to wait and see what happens… 

Brooks also spoke about what season 2 might look like, particularly if the season will pick up where season 1 ends versus jumping ahead to the events of The Wishsong of Shannara…

This is an interesting debate that’s ongoing. When I first saw this I thought, ‘Well, we should just move on and do a whole new season that involves the next book and forget about this season.’ But of course MTV said, ‘Are you crazy? We’re building fan support for these actors, we can’t boot them out of there and bring all-new people in!’ And I said, ‘Well, they could be the same characters, just the children or whatever…’ that didn’t work.

It became clear that they were going to build the story around the actors they have right now, and that was going to be the thrust of the story no matter what. But they are free to remove elements from other books, and I think they will do that. They’ve already been talking about Wishsong and using bits and pieces or large chunks of that storyline and building around the characters they already have, which isn’t too difficult to do. So that’s what they will do. What shows tend to do when adapting books is do the first season and then go off in different directions, so I forsee my duty as being to help them get there in the best way possible.

Shannara Chronicles Season 2 Synopsis

MTV also released an official synopsis for the new season of The Shannara Chronicles…

A year after the events of last season, The Four Lands is in chaos. The re-emergence of magic has the populace terrified, and an organization called The Crimson is hunting down magic users, using fear and intimidation to sow discord among the races.

Wil, scarred by the loss of Amberle and his separation from Eretria, has turned his back on his magical destiny to become a healer. But when a mysterious woman named Mareth saves Wil from a Crimson attack, he is forced to rejoin the fight.

After reuniting with Eretria, Wil and Mareth seek out Allanon, only to learn that the Druid’s former protégé, Bandon, is on a mission to resurrect a creature of darkest evil: The Warlock Lord. Together, our heroes must band together to take down The Crimson and prevent Bandon from unleashing an even greater threat upon the Four Lands, before it’s too late.

Though we’ll have to wait until October to see the new episodes on their new home, the show has officially finished filming it second season in New Zealand…