Canadian TV show Wild Cards was a great success for both fans and critics in its first season, achieving a 100 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score to lead them into a longer Season 2 (premiering Jan. 8 on CBC and CBC Gem in Canada, and coming to The CW in the U.S. on Feb. 5). The show’s stars Vanessa Morgan and Giacomo Gianniotti highlighted how “amazing” it was to see the positive response to the show’s first season, and the benefit of getting more time to continue the story.
“We were all so grateful,” Morgan told Yahoo Canada. “I think we’re missing a lot of it on TV, family content like that, that’s fun for the family, of all ages, to watch. I’m glad to be a part of something like that.”
“You make a show and you create it in this little bubble with all your creative friends, and you don’t know what the world will think of it,” Gianniotti added. “It’s this scary moment when you release a show.”
“So we were very, very happy to have the response that we did and that we got a second season with even more episodes. … When you get a longer season, it’s not just that the audience gets more episodes, but we actually have more time to tell a story. … Because I think in the first season, when we had 10 [episodes], we felt like our foot was really on the gas a lot, and we had to really rush through a lot of things. And so it’s nice to have a little bit more time to tell some of these stories.”
(L-R) : Vanessa Morgan as Max Mitchell and Giacomo Gianniotti as Detective Cole Ellis (Jeff Weddell/The CW)
Showing the world Canadian talent
Aside from taking on this compelling procedural from an acting perspective, Morgan and Gianniotti were also excited about being able to showcase Canada through the series, specifically British Columbia, even when the assumption by many may be that it’s an American show.
“A lot of people don’t know it’s Canadian, because … it airs in the States, it airs on CW, … but it is so nice to not be hiding the fact that we’re in Canada,” Morgan stressed. “Because Riverdale, for example, we filmed here, but we hid the fact it’s Canadian when on the location.”
“So it’s nice to be able to show how beautiful Canada actually is. … We have such a beautiful country, and in B.C. especially just the ocean that you see, Ellis’s boat, downtown Vancouver, harbourfront, it’s just so stunning.”
“We also just have a ton of talent in Canada, … a lot of really talented artists,” Gianniotti added. “So to get to be able to showcase them, because our guest stars are mostly Canadians and people who are local here in Vancouver, it’s just great to give opportunities to all these amazing Vancouver, Canadian actors and showcase them to the world, and that Americans get to see them.”
CANNES, FRANCE – APRIL 07: Giacomo Gianniotti, Vanessa Morgan and Jason Priestley attends the pink carpet during the 7th Canneseries International Festival – Day Three on April 07, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Dominique Charriau/WireImage)
What happens in ‘Wild Cards’ Season 2
For Season 2, Wild Cards maintains one of the most interesting elements of the show, having each episode inspired by notable TV shows and movies, with the first episode of the season inspired by The Fast and the Furious franchise.
“I love The Fast and the Furious movies, so anything that can make me look like a badass stunt driver was was fun,” Morgan said. “And I love cars.”
Moving into the second episode, it’s inspired by the famed series Yellowstone and also features The Breakfast Club icon Ally Sheedy, who plays a ranch owner named Rose Pruett.
“I just thought she added a lot of like depth and grit to that character, which is what we needed,” Gianniotti said. “We needed someone you could just buy that they got their hands dirty and they were a little rough, and had seen some things.”
In addition to Sheedy, Wild Cards guest stars for Season 2 also includes Martin Sheen.
(L-R) : Giacomo Gianniotti as Detective Cole Ellis and Vanessa Morgan as Max Mitchell (Justine Yeung/The CW)
Aside from the cases that Max Mitchell (Morgan) and Cole Ellis (Gianniotti) solve in each episode, a big question for fans heading into Season 2 is where their relationship stands, and how much closer the detective and the con woman could get.
“I think the first season really established the groundwork for something beautiful between them and I think they both recognized within each other that there’s something there worth pursuing and fighting for,” Gianniotti said. “But the betrayal that happens at the end of Season 1, where Max was basically about to skip town and actually stole this artifact and lied to Ellis, it was such a big betrayal that Ellis really had to rethink everything and go back through every single exchange she had with Max ever, in the whole first season, and replay it in his mind and decide what was truth and what was lies.”
“So Season 2 is really about Max trying to get back into his good graces and getting him to trust her again, because he doesn’t initially. So he’s got this very ice cold heart at the beginning of Season 2 and as the season progresses, Max is sort of slowly melting his heart back. So you do see him warm up to her as the season goes on and I think Max does a really good job in Season 2 of regaining his trust.”
Additionally, for Ellis, there’s still this determination in his quest to get closure about his brother’s death.
“When he gets home and he lays his feet up, it sort of consumes his whole mind, but he has a job to do, and people that count on him,” Gianniotti said. “And he genuinely loves his job, loves helping people and putting bad guys away.”
“So I think it’s a very human experience. … We all have traumas and things that we’re dealing with, but life goes on. We have to keep living.”
For Max’s story, Morgan highlighted that we’ll get to see more of her relationship with her father, played by Jason Priestley. Peeling back more layers of Max’s personal life, but she maintain that infectious energy and personality we love to watch.
“I love Max’s confidence and how she really just always believes things are going to work out for her, and I admire that,” Morgan said. “I try to be more like that in my real life, so it’s fun playing such a character that just embodies that.”