Alita: Battle Angel star Keean Johnson has joined as a new series regular and a trio of actors – Vivienne Guynn, Chad Rook and Aadila Dosani – have been promoted from recurring to series regulars.
This comes after Deadline revealed that the network had renewed the Michael Dorman-fronted drama series for a second season earlier this year.
The series follows a rookie game warden after he and his family move to an idyllic rural community in the mountains of Wyoming. Their dream, however, turns into a nightmare when Joe finds a murder victim in his backyard – and finds his family in the crosshairs of a deadly plot. Joe and his lawyer wife, Marybeth, are forced to navigate a tangled web of schemes, secrets, and conspiracy amid the gorgeous vistas of Wyoming’s vast wilderness.
Johnson, who just wrapped Paramount+’s American Tragedies: Waco – The Trials and also starred in the first season of Euphoria, plays Luke Brueggeman, Joe Pickett’s new Game and Fish trainee. Luke is a wide-eyed, lovable screwup who often acts as Joe’s comedic sidekick. Luke has a motormouth, an aversion to horses – and an unconventional method for corralling drunk elk.
Season two follows Pickett after he finds the body of a murdered hunter that’s been strung up and field-dressed like an elk and makes a shocking discovery: someone in Saddlestring has begun hunting hunters. While Joe tracks down the killer, his wife, Marybeth, investigates the disappearance of a young Arapaho woman named Marissa Left Hand.
Guynn plays April Keeley, a shy, sensitive, and thoughtful foster daughter whose mother abandoned her after her father was killed in Season one. Rook, who also starred in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, plays Deputy McLanahan, a blundering sheriff’s deputy with a huge ego who relishes razzing Joe. Dosani, who starred in The CW’s Nancy Drew, plays Cricket, a quirky, underdog sheriff’s deputy who falls for a fugitive of the law.
The cast also includes Juliana Guill as Marybeth Pickett, Skywalker Hughes as Sheridan Pickett, Kamryn Pliva as Lucy Pickett, Mustafa Speaks as Nate Romanowski and Sharon Lawrence as Missy Vankeuren.
Recurring stars for season two include Patrick Gallagher, Alex Breaux, Sean Wei Mah, John Ralston, Cheryl De Luca, Chris Gauthier, Emily Alabi, T’áncháy Redvers and Aaron Dean Eisenberg.
The series, which is based on CJ Box’s books, comes from Waco creators John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle, who servedas showrunners, directors and exec producers alongside author Box and Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher of Red Wagon Entertainment. It is produced by Paramount Television Studios.
The first season was watched by over 1M households in its first month after its December launch – making it the company’s most-watched original before the full season was released.
Katherine Pope, Head of Spectrum Originals, told Deadline in February, “What’s so special about the fact that Joe Pickett connected with the audience is that it’s just a great show,” she said. “I feel that sometimes our business gets in its own way… [asking] what do we do? How do we reinvent it? Sometimes you just make a great show. We wanted this to be a character drama that spools out over time.”
Johnson is represented by Verve, Management 360 and attorney Jim Gilio. Rook is represented by Webster Talent Management and Noble Caplan Abrams. Dosani is repped by KC Talent and Brave Artists Management. Guynn is represented by Details Talent.
