Amazon Renews 'The Rig' for Season 2 with Martin Compston & Iain Glen Returning
Martin Compston in The Rig
Amazon Studios
Prime Video's The Rig is going to keep pumping for oil, as Amazon has announced the series — the first to be filmed entirely in Scotland — is being re-upped for a second season. The series, which begins as a mystery on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea that could be corporate espionage, suddenly makes a hard right turn into the supernatural, with a touch of topicality involving the ongoing climate crisis. Though the overall plot didn't manage to make a greater whole from the sum of its parts, the stellar cast mostly kept it afloat. The good news is many of them will be back, reprising their roles in Season 2.
Though the series was technically headlined by American actor Emily Hampshire (Schitt's Creek) as Rose Mason, the rest of the ensemble are U.K. based, including Iain Glen (Game of Thrones), Martin Compston (Line of Duty), Mark Bonnar (Guilt), Owen Teale (A Discovery of Witches), Richard Pepple (COBRA), and Mark Addy (The Full Monty) among others. While not all these characters survived the first season, Hasmpshire's Rose Mason did, along with Glen's Magnus MacMillan and Compston's Fulmer Hamilton. All three will be back for the next season.
Despite an aggressive push in marketing the series when it first went into production, Amazon did not try and turn The Rig into a weekly release series, instead dropping all six episodes as a binge-watch in early January 2023, one that came with little fanfare. Between that and the so-so reviews, it seemed unlikely that the series would get another round. However, Deadline confirms the new season is going into production in Scotland, with filming slated for mid to late-2023.
The new installment will pick up directly after the events of Season 1. Here’s The Rig Season 2’s current logline:
The first season told the story of the Kishorn Bravo oil rig, stationed off the Scottish coast, which is enveloped in a mysterious fog that cuts off all lines of communication. Season 2 will follow the surviving Kinloch Bravo crew as they are helicoptered off the rig and taken to a new location, where fresh danger awaits. They must contend with swirling conspiracies, conflicts, and new threats from the depths of the world’s oceans.
Along with Hampshire, Glen, and Compston, the series will bring back Teale and Addy. Other returning co-stars include Rochenda Sandall (Criminal: UK), Molly Vevers (The Spanish Princess), Abraham Popoola (A Christmas Carol), and Stuart McQuarrie (The Crown). Series creator David Macpherson, who based the story -- his first for television -- on his father’s time working on oil rigs in the North Sea, will be back to pen all episodes, and director John Strickland (Bodyguard) will return to helm them.
In the press release, Macpherson said, “I’m looking forward to expanding the world of our show through the eyes of our excellent cast as we deliver more shocks and thrills and delve deeper into both our characters’ and our show’s expanding original mythology.”
The Rig Season 2 does not yet have a release date on Amazon.
