After making a lasting first impression for many audiences, Will Trent is green lit for a second season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC ordered season two ahead of the first season’s final episodes. It is expected that Ramón Rodríguez (The Wire, Day Break) will reprise his role as Will Trent in the series after it wraps its first season on May 2.
2023 has shown that drama is all the rage for many TV audiences just as the time for easy money has ended for many streamers after Covid regulations started lifting. Nevertheless, even during this time, many still caught on quickly to the crime drama. The series is based on Karin Slaughter’s (The Good Daughter, Blindsighted) novels of the same name. They follow Will Trent who grew up in a foster home and eventually became a special agent. As he investigates cases, he eventually comes into contact with many challenges that he must persevere.
The TV series has Liz Heldens (The Orville, Friday Night Lights) & Dan Thomsen (Westworld, The Passage) as the showrunners, writers, and main executive producers. Slaughter also joins them as an executive producer. Joining Rodríguez for the main cast includes Erika Christensen (Traffic, Ten Days in the Valley), Iantha Richardson (This Is Us, American Soul), Jake McLaughlin (Warrior, Quantico), and Sonja Sohn (The Wire, The Chi).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Will Trent had been ordered by ABC to produce pilot in 2022 with a cast contingent order. The first episode aired on ABC on January 3rd, 2023, and took on to be a massive hit. The series ranked as ABC’s No. 1 drama after 35 days with high ratings. These figures include a total viewership of 9.9 million and a 1.65 rating among the 18-49 demographic. It is ranked 88% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer with an audience score of 82% and a 7.6/10 on IMDb.
From that same article, Will Trent is ABC’s first freshman series to earn a pickup for the 2023-24 broadcast season and joins returning hits such as Abbott Elementary, The Rookie and Grey’s Anatomy. This does come at a precarious time, though. The burst of the drama bubble becomes evident to streamers and networks as costs of creating dramas skyrocket. On top of that, they are also worried about the impending WGA strike that may be coming on May 1st. As of now, ABC has yet to make decisions on the rest of its scripted slate.
Even with that though, ABC and Hulu see potential in Will Trent and have given it support at this current time. As of now though, there is not an official release date for season two, but more information will come out following the end of season one.
Rodríguez is enthusiastic about what’s to come after the announcement made on Tuesday. “We’re so thankful to our ABC and Hulu fans for joining us on this wild ride and watching Will Trent. When we set out to bring the series to television screens, we wanted to do justice to the gritty, thrilling world that Karin Slaughter created with her best-selling book series. Liz Heldens, Dan Thomsen and the creative team have developed complex and nuanced characters that people are relating to on a human level — and it hasn’t hurt having our little star, Betty, on the call sheet. We’re so excited for the opportunity to dive deeper into these stories with season two.” via. The Hollywood Reporter.
In the meantime, new episodes of Will Trent will air on Tuesday nights at 10pm EST on ABC and be available to stream the next day. You can watch the trailer for the series down below.