The season two premiere of the hit AMC Network series, Into The Badlands, was a homerun hit becoming the #1 returning show thusfar with 4.5 million viewers back in March. It’s a milestone well-deserved after launching its six episode run back in 2015 from creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, and with ratings otherwise holding steady, much to the delight of fans, the show is officially poised for another round of epic drama and martial arts action.
Per the announcement:
Midway through its current second season, “Into the Badlands” is averaging 3.6 million viewers per episode, including 2.1 million adults 25-54 in Nielsen Live+3 ratings. In the current television season, the series ranks as the #4 scripted drama on cable and the #4 returning drama, behind “The Walking Dead,” “American Horror Story” and “Fear the Walking Dead.”
“‘Into the Badlands’ looks like nothing else on television, a literal high-wire act attracting passionate and dedicated fans by the millions,” said Charlie Collier, president of AMC, SundanceTV and AMC Studios. “Thanks to series creators and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar, the terrific cast, led by Daniel Wu, the amazing martial arts team guided by the incomparable Master Dee Dee and fight directors Stephen Fung and Andy Cheng, and everyone else involved who brings this thrill ride to the fans.”
“We are excited and grateful to continue our journey into the Badlands with Charlie, Joel, Susie and all of our friends at AMC,” said Gough and Millar. “We also want to give a big clipper salute to our Irish and Chinese partners! The thought of doing an expanded 16-episode season is both thrilling and exhausting!!”
The new season will extend to sixteen episodes – six more from its current ten-part run on AMC. Wu serves as executive producer next to Stephen Fung, as well as stars along with current cast for a story set in a steampunk dystopia with walled off manors, towns and villages run by rich barons warring for authority over each other. Here, we observe the intertwining tales of politics and family upheaval among barons, as well as their soldiers, including a highly skilled former “clipper” named Sunny (Wu), and M.K. (Aramis Knight) a young boy afflicted by a gift that turns him into an unstoppable force.
In addition to this and it share of dark twists and turns with tragedies and at least one character respawning after season one, we also got Nick Frost in the role of Bajie who we learn more about during his haphazard, reluctant partnership with Sunny in the course of their fight to escape from captivity. That fight eventually led to a second bout between Sunny and actor and martial artist Cung Le reprising in the role of a powerful abbot who shares a highly trained adaptation of a gift among his brethren similar to M.K.’s.. (You can view that officially released scene in the player below OR save yourself the spoils for later full viewing in case you don’t have access to AMC).
Currently there’s no telling who will return or join just yet so more news is needed after this. Season one is currently available on Netflix in all six-episodes as well as on Blu-Ray. Season two currently airs every night close to 10:00pm EST on AMC while the network plots the course for the show’s return in 2018!
