6 Things the 'Sense8' Cast Revealed About Season 2
The cast of 'Sense8' spills the Season 2 details from BPO to Wolfgang's new love interest.
Season 1 of Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s sprawling Netflix Original Series Sense8 saw the sensates united for the first time as they honed their loosely defined psychic, emotional, and physical connection. Eight ordinary people from different cities around the world were thrown from their daily lives and connected, for better or worse. Capheus (played by Toby Onwumere in Season 2), Sun (Doona Bae), Nomi (Jamie Clayton), Kala (Tina Desai), Riley (Tuppence Middleton), Wolfgang (Max Riemelt), Lito (Miguel Ángel Silvestre), and Will (Brian J. Smith) will discover entirely new challenges in Season 2.
The sensates are tired of running from their problems in Sense8 Season 2, and they’re finally taking the fight to Whispers. And with Whispers and the shadowy BPO honing in on the cluster and using Will as a conduit to track down his new-found family, the stakes are higher than ever before. Rightfully so, the sensates will do anything to protect their own.
But Season 1 left a lot of questions to be answered, and at the NYC premiere the sensates themselves offered some hints at what to expect from the upcoming season.
1. There Will Be More Visits Between the Different Sensates
In Season 1, the sensates found themselves suddenly “visiting” each other. Kala would be sitting on a sunny rooftop in Mumbai and simultaneously find herself at a rainy Berlin cafe with the German sensate Wolfgang. As the season progressed, each sensate became acclimated to this sensation and learned how to control it better.
Tina Desai, who plays Kala Dandekar, said the frequency and variety of these visits amps up in Season 2. “As a cluster, we’re connecting a lot more, so we’re visiting each other a lot more,” she said. “We’re helping each other a lot more — but even if we’re not helping each other, suddenly someone will pop up to crack a joke.”
Toby Onwumere, who stepped in to play Capheus “Van Damme” Onyango in A Christmas Special, and will continue the role in Season 2, said he will interact more with Wolfgang and Sun. “I have a really interesting [scene] with Wolfgang, and in Season 1, I don’t think they had [interactions] as extensively. Sun will be needing me too.”
Lito, Capheus, and Sun in 'Sense8'
2. The Threat of Whispers Amps Up
Season 1 ended with Will inadvertently connecting with Whispers, the sinister operative hunting the sensates. In the show’s Christmas special, Riley injects Will with heroin to keep Whispers from finding them.
“You can never take anything on face value when it comes to Whispers and what he’s capable of,” said Terrence Mann, who plays Whispers.
“He’s trying to hunt us,” said Desai. “So as a scientist, I’m able to help them out because I understand how to stay away from Whispers — I know how to help everyone when someone’s in a medical emergency or needs scientific knowledge.”
Terrence Mann as Whispers, Brian J. Smith as Will Gorski, and Tuppence Middleton as Riley Blue in 'Sense8'
3. Wolfgang Will Get a New Love Interest.
Throughout Season 1, Wolfgang and Kala had the ultimate “will they or won’t they” dynamic. The two had a strong mutual attraction complicated by their disparate lifestyles. Wolfgang lived a life of organized crime in Berlin, while Kala lived in Mumbai, preparing to marry a man she didn’t love. In Season 2, this will be shaken up even more, because Wolfgang is getting a new love interest.
Valeria Bilello, who plays this new character, said that her dynamic with Wolfgang is “pretty complex and simple at the same time.” Bilello continued, “She’s a determined person — sexy, smart, dangerous. There will be tension from my character’s side.”
How Kala feels about that? Desai said, “It’s obviously causing her a lot of anxiety. The fact is I can’t fight that I have a connection with Wolfgang in the cluster — and now I’m married and trying to make sense of what to do and what not to do.”
Tina Desai as Kala and Max Riemelt as Wolfgang in 'Sense8'
4. The Significant Others Will Be More Involved and Sun Will Meet Amanita
Many of the sensates have significant others who were a strong presence in the story — even if they didn’t know about their partners’ sudden connection to eight other people. Lito has his boyfriend Hernado; Nomi has her girlfriend Amanita, and Kala has her husband Rajan. But Amanita stands apart as the one significant other who knew about the cluster.
Freema Agyeman, who plays Amanita, said, “This season sees Amanita being brought in even further to the sensate fold. Obviously Nomi is my favorite sensate, but I can’t decide [who is my other favorite] between Sun and Will Gorski. There’s a really great scene that I get to do with Sun — a bit of comedy.”
Freema Agyeman as Amanita and Jamie Clayton as Nomi in Sense8
5. More Information Will Be Revealed About Whispers, BPO and Clusters
Although Season 1 featured characters like Whispers and Jonas, who were isolated sensates from other clusters, the sensate mythology was rather vague. It’s still unclear exactly what happens to a sensate who is separated from their cluster and what causes clusters to fracture.
Terrence Mann said the mythology of the world and its background will be expanded in Season 2. “You’ll find out more about what goes on at BPO in the second season,” he said. “You do a real deep dive into everybody’s relationships — even Whispers. You do find out about more clusters. How it all networks, it starts to interconnect into all the different people and clusters.”
“The whole thing becomes much more personal,” Mann continues. “He’s a scientist first. The scientists at BPO, do they start to play God? Whispers thinks the world isn’t ready for sensates; he thinks he’s doing the wrong thing for the right reasons by killing them off. He feels he has to keep the world safe from this kind of power.”
The central cluster in Season 2: Wolfgang, Kala, Riley, Capheus, Nomi, Will, Lito, and Sun
6. Lito Will Help Sun
Of all the sensates, the actor Lito bonded most with is transgender hacker Nomi — in part because he was grappling with coming out to the world. But according to Miguel Ángel Silvestre, who plays Lito, in Season 2 his skills will be used to help one sensate he didn’t interact with much in Season 1: Sun.
“Season 2 is going to take [Lito] on a roller coaster of emotions,” he said. “I’m going to have a very special scene with Sun. I thought that Lito didn’t have anything to give to Sun, but [Lana Wachowski] told me he has a lot — Lito has very easy access to his emotions. Sun doesn’t, and Lito’s going to help her with that. She wrote a beautiful scene.”
Silvestre added about Season 2, “In some cultures you can be judged, and in others the same thing that you’re judged for can become a gift. There are some surprises [ahead] in that sense.”
Sense8 Season 2 drops on Netflix on May 5.
