Sarah Pidgeon And Reign Edwards Talk Season 2 Of The Wilds - Exclusive Interview
The much-anticipated second season of "The Wilds" is set to premiere on Prime Video on May 6. The first season of the TV drama followed a group of teenage girls after a plane crash stranded them on a deserted island. Throughout the series, the characters overcome tremendous odds, and fans get to know them in flashbacks that explore who the girls were before landing on the island. The show is full of intense moments, mystery, and plenty of plot twists to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Season 2 promises to add to that, with old and new characters continuing the story.
Reign Edwards and Sarah Pidgeon sat down for an exclusive interview with The List to discuss their roles in the upcoming season. Edwards plays Rachel, and Pidgeon plays Leah in the series. At the end of the first season, both of their characters were left in dire situations. The actresses shared what it was like jumping into the new season with their characters in those dark places. They also discussed how Leah and Rachel have grown from the start of the show and revealed some of their favorite moments from filming.
What it was like starting Season 2 in a dark place
Going into this season, both of your characters were in super dark places. What was it like for you to act that?
Reign Edwards: It was really intense, very physically and emotionally demanding, especially starting off in Episode 1. I'm really excited for everybody to see it. It was very, very challenging in the best ways possible. I'm glad we got to give those performances.
What about for you, Sarah?
Sarah Pidgeon: Stepping back into that, the most pressure was trying to tap back into where we left our characters at the end of Episode 10 in Season 1. It was cathartic to step back into that again and know that there might be some relief soon. It was wonderful watching Reign work. She does such a fantastic job in very, very difficult scenes. It was hard to watch sometimes as a scene partner, but she did such a beautiful job. It was easy to step up when you saw something like that.
How Season 2 elevates the show
What would you say was the biggest change from making the first season to making this season?
Pidgeon: [There's] the change of adding more characters. It sticks very true to the heart of the story and the tone that we had in Season 1, and it is elevated in Season 2 even more. There's more intensity because there are more stories. There's more feeling. There's more conflict.
The shooting schedule was different. We were in a different country as well, so the environment was different. Collectively, the girls' headspaces were different because the immediate storyline of the immediate survival — that changes for the girls. That's not as imminent [a] threat, although they are still surviving in Season 2. It's different in a lot of ways, but it still has the same heart that Season 1 has.
Yeah, and then your characters got a lot closer in this season. Was it fun to have those more lighthearted scenes together amidst all this insane life or death stuff that's happening?
Edwards: Definitely. We had a ton of laughs on set, which was really nice, but also they — Leah and Rachel — didn't get along so well in Season 1. To see their commonalities and be able to play and build upon those, it's a perfect example of how we all think we have these big differences, but we actually have a lot more in common than we think and you can still come together. A lot of our stuff was really hilarious to me.
"The Wilds" Season 2 premieres on Prime Video on May 6, 2022.
This interview was edited for clarity.