'Cruel Summer' : Sadie Stanley, Griffin Gluck and Eloise Payet to Lead New Mystery in Season 2

The hit Freeform show, which premieres its second season later this year, will also feature KaDee Strickland, Paul Adelstein, Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore

US actor Griffin Gluck attends the premiere of Hulu's "Big Time Adolescence" at Metrograph on March 5, 2020 in New York City. Headshot of actor Sadie Stanley
Photo: ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty; David Muller

Cruel Summer is set to return with a new cast and mystery for its sophomore season.

On Thursday, Freeform announced that the new batch of episodes, set to premiere later this year, will star The Goldbergs' Sadie Stanley, Lock & Key's Griffin Gluck and newcomer Eloise Payet.

Gluck will reunite with fellow Private Practice alums Paul Adelstein and KaDee Strickland, who played his father and stepmom on the ABC drama series. Lisa Yamada and Sean Blakemore are also set to join the series.

Season two of Cruel Summer will chronicle "the rise and fall of an intense teenage friendship," according to a press release from the network.

"Approaching the story from three different timelines surrounding Y2K, the season twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between Megan, Isabella and Megan's best friend Luke, the love triangle that blossomed, and the mystery that would impact all of their lives going forward," the logline reads.

Megan Landry, played by Stanley, is a computer coder and honor student from a blue-collar family, whose "long-held dreams are dashed" when events take a "tragic turn," per the release.

As the "alluring and enigmatic" daughter of foreign diplomats, Payet's character Isabella is an exchange student who is spending a year with the Landry family. While there, she "shakes up life in this small town, but her charm can't hide the truth about her past or the real reason she came to live with the Landrys forever."

Eloise Payet
Freeform

Gluck's character, Luke Chambers, is Megan's lifelong best friend who "finds himself at a crossroads as he tries to establish his own place in the world, separate from the expectations of his powerful father."

Elle Triedman, who was co-executive producer of Freeform's Siren and Guilt, will take over as showrunner, replacing Tia Napolitano. The studio eOne series, created by Bert V. Royal, will also be executive produced by Triedman, as well as Napolitano, Bill Purple and Iron Ocean Productions' Jessica Biel and Michelle Purple.

CRUEL SUMMER - Freeform's “Cruel Summer” stars Blake Lee as Martin Harris, Allius Barnes as Vince Fuller, Olivia Holt as Kate Wallis, Froy Gutierrez as Jamie Henson, Harley Quinn Smith as Mallory Higgins, Chiara Aurelia as Jeanette Turner, Michael Landes as Greg Turner and Brooklyn Sudano as Angela Prescott. (Freeform/Frank Ockenfels)
Season 1 cast of Cruel Summer. Frank Ockenfels/Freeform

The first season of Cruel Summer premiered last year and starred Olivia Holt, Chiara Aurelia, Michael Landes, Froy Gutierrez, Harley Quinn Smith, Allius Barnes, Blake Lee and Brooklyn Sudano.

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The show followed the mysterious disappearance of popular Texas high school student Kate Wallis (Holt) as outsider Jeanette Turner (Aurelia) assumes the role in her absence. The story unfolded between 1993, 1994 and 1995, following the aftermath of Kate's return after her abduction.

The show has since become Freeform's most-watched series in network history.

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