Is the second series ready for take off?
HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant took to the skies last year before arriving on Sky Atlantic in the UK, with The Big Bang Theory’s Kaley Cuoco starring as Cassie Bowden, an alcoholic air stewardess who gets caught up in a murder investigation.
Fast forward several months and Cuoco has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy, the show’s been renewed for a second season and fans are desperate to find out what’s next for Cassie, who is preparing to become an asset for the CIA.
With new showrunner Natalie Chaidez (Queen of the South) at the helm for season two, the second series is set to explore Cassie’s sobriety, with Cuoco recently telling Deadline‘s Contenders Television awards-season event: “We are going to be adding in that slight CIA asset on the side.
“[Cassie] moves to L.A., first year sober, and she makes all the wrong decisions on what you’re not supposed to do when you become sober and she’s going to learn very quickly that it’s not as easy as she thought.”
With Zosia Mamet and T.R. Knight returning to The Flight Attendant cast for season two, it’s time to buckle up for an exciting second series.
If you need reminding of what happened in the season one finale, make sure to check out our Flight Attendant finale recap, or read on for everything you need to know about season two.
The Flight Attendant season 2 UK release date
HBO confirmed back in December that The Flight Attendant would return for a second series.
“To say that I am elated would be an understatement!” said star Kaley Cuoco in a statement. “The positive response to our show has surpassed all of our expectations and I’m so proud of the entire team behind its success.”
She added that with HBO Max, Warner Bros, showrunner Steve Yockey and producers Suzanne McCormack and Mackenzie Shade, she’s “committed to delivering diverse and quality entertainment, including an exciting (and probably a little crazy) TFA season two”.
While we don’t yet have an official release date for The Flight Attendant season two, it doesn’t look like Cassie and her cabin crew will be back before next year.
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Speaking at a virtual presentation with AT&T investors, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said that the show’s second series won’t be released on HBOMax in the US until Spring 2022, according to AdWeek.
Fans in the UK may have to wait a little longer if the season one release date is anything to go by. The Flight Attendant premiered in the US towards the end of November 2020 but the series didn’t land on Sky One until 19th March 2021. Therefore, it’s possible that UK fans won’t be watching season two until Autumn 2022.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press in March, the show’s star Kaley Cuoco revealed that filming is set to begin “at the end of this year”.
“It will stay international. Obviously, we don’t know what the world will look like then, but we don’t know what it will look like tomorrow, so we’re hoping that we will be able to do some real travel by then and keep the show authentic.”
In June, Cuoco told WWD that season two is well underway, with shooting set to start in the autumn. “Now I feel like the work really starts; it’s harder because I want to make sure it’s even better than the first. And I think more eyes are going to be on us now,” she said. “It’s an added pressure, but it’s good. It’s making us really want to come out with some really fun storyline.”
The Flight Attendant season 2 plot
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*Spoilers ahead for The Flight Attendant season one*
While The Flight Attendant’s first series solved Alex Sokolov’s murder, there’s still a lot for series two to explore. In the series finale, we saw Cassie’s colleague Shane (Griffin Matthews) – who turned out to secretly be a CIA agent – tell her that the agency want to recruit her for a human asset programme – but will Cassie take him up on that offer?
Before the series was renewed, Kaley Cuoco told Entertainment Weekly that she already had ideas for a second series, saying: “We have always had a vision for a season two.
“We have had a very clear path for what a season two would look like, we know exactly what it’ll look like, and we hope we’ll get the opportunity to do that,” she said, with showrunner Steve Yockey adding that series two will be “another adventure with Cassie Bowden, flight attendant.”
Cuoco gave fans more plot details, revealing that the follow-up series will follow Cassie as she tries to “live a sober life”.
“As we know, she’s very impatient, so she thinks that things are going to be super-easy, that this is going to be no big deal, and she’s going to realise really fast that this is going to be a lifelong struggle for her,” she told TVLine.
Meanwhile, Yockey told TVLine that Cassie’s “mind palace” – the scenes in which viewers get a peak at the character’s inner monologue – would return “in some way, shape or form”, although it doesn’t look like Alex Sokolov will be living inside Cassie’s head this time.
“In our finale, episode eight, she has that beautiful moment where she walks through the mind palace and shuts it all down, basically, so I think that iteration of the mind palace is done,” Yockey said. “That one has to do with Alex, and she’s moved on from that, but there would be some new version of it that would have to exist in a series, I think.”
In June, Cuoco revealed that Cassie’s mind palace will still exist in season two but used in a different way. “We will still have the mind palace. I can say that she will be facing herself,” told WWD.
Fans are also bound to have questions when it comes to Megan (Rosie Perez) – Cassie’s airline colleague who went on the run in the series finale after selling state secrets to the North Korean government.
“We need to find Rosie’s character – Megan became such a fan favourite and that will be a really big storyline,” Cuoco told TVLine. “We’re excited to see where that goes.”
More recently, Kaley Cuoco revealed that season two will see Cassie move to LA to train as an FBI agent and approach her first year of sobriety.
“I was very clear when we decided we wanted to do a second season, that I didn’t want Cassie to all of a sudden be like an amazing FBI agent,” she told Deadline‘s Contenders Television awards-season event.
“We are going to be adding in that slight CIA asset on the side. [Cassie] moves to L.A., first year sober, and she makes all the wrong decisions on what you’re not supposed to do when you become sober and she’s going to learn very quickly that it’s not as easy as she thought.”
The Flight Attendant season 2 cast
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We know executive producer and star Kaley Cuoco is definitely returning to The Flight Attendant as recovering alcoholic air hostess Cassie Bowden, and Cuoco has hinted that Birds of Prey’s Rosie Perez will return as international fugitive Megan – but HBO has not officially confirmed any other cast members for series two just yet.
As for Zosia Mamet, who plays Cassie’s best friend Annie Mouradian, Cuoco recently told Entertainment Weekly that Anne will still feature in season two. “I think we want [Annie] to come out and maybe look at some LA law firms so she can be near Cassie,” she said.
As for Cassie’s brother Davey, played by T.R. Knight, “he is going to follow her to L.A. because he’s concerned about her sobriety, [but] we are going to find out that he’s trying to escape some of his own issues.”
Hopefully Terry Serpico (Bill Briscoe) and Griffin Matthews (Shane Evans) reprise their roles from the first series, although it’s unlikely Michiel Huisman will be back as Alex Sokolov, considering that showrunner Steve Yockey recently revealed that Cassie’s dead lover won’t be haunting her “mind palace” in the upcoming season.
That being said, in July Michiel Huisman hinted to Deadline that he could be in season two, saying: “They want me to be incredibly vague about that. I respect that these writers want to keep it nice and vague and then surprise their audience.”
There’s also a question mark over Michelle Gomez returning for season two, as her character Miranda Croft disappeared with Alex’s millions in the series finale. However, she did leave Cassie a note in which she wrote, “See you soon,” so hopefully she’ll be back.
It’s also possible that Colin Woodell, who played Cassie’s one-night-stand Buckley, who turned out to be Alex’s assassin Felix, could return, as he wasn’t dead at the end of the series. While Cassie recovered from their stand-off with CIA agent Shane, we watched as an injured Felix was wheeled into an ambulance by paramedics – could he escape prison with the intention of killing Cassie again?
The Flight Attendant season 2 trailer
HBO Max is yet to release a trailer for The Flight Attendant season two, but we’ll update this page with any new clips as and when they’re released.
The Flight Attendant is available to watch on Sky catch-up and NOW TV. Read our The Flight Attendant review or The Flight Attendant ending explainer. You can also visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight, or visit our Drama hub for all the latest news.