Eleventh Hour Films has today announced that stage and screen actor Toby Stephens (Die Another Day, Jane Eyre, Lost In Space, Black Sails), Rakie Ayola (Holby City, Hermione Granger in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child) and newcomer Charithra Chandran are among the names joining the cast of Season 2 of Alex Rider.
Stephens will be playing energetic tech billionaire Damian Cray who is poised to launch a new version of his best-selling computer game: Feathered Serpent. Ayola appears as Jo Byrne, the tough new Deputy Director of the CIA who is brought to the UK ahead of a visit by the US President. Newcomer Chandran plays smart and confident teen Sabina Pleasance whose journalist father is writing a book on Cray and becomes entangled with Alex while on holiday in Cornwall.
With a blockbuster launch in 2020 on Amazon Prime Video in the UK and IMDb TV, Amazon’s free streaming service, in the U.S., the series went on to air in over 100 territories worldwide. Season two will be based on Eagle Strike, the fourth novel in the best-selling Alex Rider franchise, and will once again stream exclusively as an Amazon Original on Prime Video in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Latin America and U.K., and as an IMDb TV Original in the U.S.
The series stars Otto Farrant as Alex Rider, a London based teenager who has unknowingly been trained since childhood for the dangerous world of espionage. Otto will once again be joined by season 1 co-stars Vicky McClure, Stephen Dillane, Brenock O’Connor and Ronke Adekoluejo. It was the first series commissioned by SPT’s international production and distribution divisions on spec, greenlighting the project independently to be distributed worldwide.
Toby Stephens says “I’m really thrilled to be part of Alex Rider season 2 and working with Eleventh Hour Films again. My son loves the Alex Rider books so it’s lovely to be a part of something that he recognises and enjoys – and it’s been a while since I played a good nemesis, so I’m really look forward to being the bad guy and going toe to toe with Alex Rider.’
Eve Guiterrez, Exec Producer, Eleventh Hour Films, says “We are beyond thrilled to have Toby, Rakie and Charithra on board to bring to life these key characters for season two of Alex Rider. We’ve been incredibly lucky that viewers have enthusiastically embraced the casting of season one and can’t wait to evolve the dynamic further with a fresh mission and even higher stakes”
As with Alex Rider season one, Anthony Horowitz, the author of the book franchise, will serve as an Executive Producer alongside Jill Green, Eve Gutierrez, and series writer Guy Burt.
The series is currently in production.
