Chris Pratt is reprising his role as former Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander James Reece in The Terminal List season 2 and the first footage has offered fans some insight into what the highly-anticipated series will entail. New images for the new season of Prime Video have been revealed, which sees Pratt return as Reece and the character cross into darker and more expansive waters. The new season is anticipated to continue the action from last season in the original series’ setting but will also add an international plot which will see Reece travel across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The return of James Reece brings back a distinctively different appearance for the character. The first season saw Reece played as a highly-trained soldier who was fuelled by grief, anger and a need to find out what really happened to his team and family that brought them down. The second season seems to be even harder on him, as he’s shown to be physically drained at the first look material, which is a SEAL from the past. The transition implies that Reece will start this part of his journey as a weak phenomenon and not as the unstoppable force that audiences know.
One of the most poignant tidbits to come directly from the man in charge of the project, Chris Pratt, is how he managed to shoot some of the new sequences under difficult conditions. Shooting sequences with boats were a major challenge, Pratt said, because he had severe health issues at the time. Pratt told USA Today Entertainment in an interview that throughout the shots of the boat, he was suffering from E. coli and another condition he developed in Africa called “tick-bite fever.”
The disclosure brings an intriguing backstory to the show. Oftentimes the dramas that a television series has to perform are action-packed, which means that the actors have to perform in challenging environments, but shooting on or near water lines can bring its own set of complications. Those challenges were reportedly even more difficult for Pratt as he was battling illnesses during the shoots. His comments also add emphasis to the physical demands of reliving a role, like James Reece, that demands heavy fight scenes, survival and military training.
The second season will expand The Terminal List in scale immensely. The new story will focus on a spy thriller rather than the personal/political/political conflict that has dominated the first season, and is projected to span the globe. The episodes of the series also allow for the possibility of exploring a broader range of intelligence operations, covert missions and threats in the international sphere, with the journey between Africa, the Middle East and Europe as a medium.
This is also exactly what Reece is, and would be very fitting for the expansion. He’s passed through his worst personal and professional setbacks and is adept at risky missions. Meanwhile, his condition could be a key factor in the first-look photos, which show he could be in rough shape. If you portray Reece as being stretched to the breaking point, another kind of drama occurs. Rather than just a question of “can he defeat his enemies?,” the season may ask, “can he keep going in the face of the implications of all that he’s already been through?
Additionally, the new images feature Gabriel Luna as Freddy Strain, a former member of SEAL. Luna’s character is likely to play a significant role in the series and it can be seen in the first-look footage that he appears alongside Pratt’s Reece during a sniper training session. This combination of the two players immediately evokes a relationship with a military element, but exactly how they will relate to each other in the season and how this relationship evolves will be up to the audience to discover.
Gabriel Luna brings in one more seasoned performer to join in the action and dramatic elements of the action thriller. He may even give Reece a new dynamic to play with when he is joined by Pratt. Betrayal and isolation have been a major part of the early story, and to have a former SEAL side by side with him could help tip the scales for the series’ feelings. It will be a key factor to see if Freddy Strain can be trusted as an ally or another throwback to uncertainty as the new episodes begin.
Also making a return is Tom Hopper as Raife Hastings. His ongoing role links the new season to the world that was created earlier, and will provide the returning viewers with a familiar character to follow along. The ensemble is both familiar and new, indicating an effort to preserve the continuity of the series, while enlarging its scope of action.
The next season will take place in the next book in Jack Carr’s beloved series starring James Reece, True Believer. This change to this material marks an important advancement in the television adaptation. The first season set up the groundwork for Reece’s character and how he drives his purpose, while the second season has the chance to delve deeper than the original story when his story goes beyond the immediate events of the first season.
The adaptation also sets expectations for the TV series to follow the book, which is great for those who’ve enjoyed the book. When produced for television, book adaptations often depart from the original in terms of character, pacing, and/or plot. The second season of The Terminal List looks like it will have its own visual style and story arc, thanks to a fresh cast and an expanded international environment, built around a core story by Carr.
