The trailer for season two of Cruel Summer dropped on 8 May and looks to be Freeform’s most-watched trailer ever. Season one of the show is the highest-rated series in Freeform history and became a fan favourite after its debut in April 2021.
Earlier this year, the streaming platform announced that Cruel Summer would be an anthology series, with a brand new cast taking the reins for its second season. Season one showrunner Tia Napolitano also stepped down, with Elle Triedman (writer for hit drama series Revenge) taking over.
The two minute trailer opens with an interrogation, establishing a mystery of a missing girl, as well as introducing the two main characters, Megan (Sadie Stanley) and Isabella (Lexi Underwood). Set to a cover of Linkin Park’s ‘In the End’, we learn that Isabella is an exchange student who lived with Megan in the summer of 1999 whereupon the two develop an intense friendship. Alongside this exploration of teenage friendship, there is an ongoing mystery surrounding a missing girl and a body is even shown being pulled out of the town lake. Whether the girl and the body are one and the same is unclear. Megan and Isabella appear to be involved with the mystery, with Megan stating, “None of this would have happened if she never came into town.”
The trailer utilises different colour palettes for each time period (Summer 1999, Winter 1999 and 2000), suggesting there will be plenty of transitions in the show’s timeline. And with the mystery of the body dominating the trailer, season two is likely to be just as thrilling as its predecessor.
The first season also followed a multiple-timeline format (1993, 1994 and 1995), following the mystery of Kate Wallis’ (Olivia Holt) kidnapping by her vice principal, Martin (Blake Lee). After Kate’s rescue, she accused fellow high schooler Jeanette Turner (Chiara Aurelia) of seeing her and deciding not to help her. The series reveals multiple jaw-dropping twists throughout the season, and season two is sure to continue that trend.
This season will star Sadie Stanley, Lexi Underwood, Griffin Gluck, KaDee Strickland, Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore.
Season two of Cruel Summer will premiere on Freeform on 5 June with two episodes.
Words by Emily Nutbean
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