Mekhi Phifer Joins ‘High Potential’ Season 2 in Enigmatic Role: All the Details on What’s Next
Morgan Gillory is officially back on the case — well, she’s back on the set of the case, at least.
Production has begun on Season 2 of ABC‘s High Potential, and while we don’t know everything that the future has in store for the LAPD’s most fashionable new consultant, we’ve managed to gather enough juicy intel to fill out a murder board — whether we’re allowed to touch it or not.
Let’s start with the freshest news: Mekhi Phifer (ER) will recur in Season 2 as a character “who becomes involved in major crimes,” our sister publication Variety reports, though additional details are being kept under wraps for now.
It’s a pretty vague description, as there are any number of ways one could become “involved” in major crimes, so we’ll just ask: Could Phifer be playing Morgan’s estranged ex (and Ava’s father) Roman?
Of course, Pfifer’s isn’t the only familiar face you can expect to see on High Potential this fall. Read on for a breakdown of everything else we know about Season 2 thus far, then drop a comment with your own hopes for Morgan & Co.’s highly anticipated return.
When Does High Potential Season 2 Premiere?
High Potential will return for Season 2 on Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 10/9c, following the two-hour premiere of Dancing With the Stars.
We can also confirm that the crime drama will produce 18 episodes in Season 2, up from 13 in Season 1.
Steve Howey Cast as Charming New Precinct Captain
How’s this for some new blood: Steve Howey (Reba, Shameless) is joining High Potential as a new series regular in Season 2. According to our sister site Deadline, Howey will play new precinct captain Jesse Wagner, described as a “savvy political animal who knows how to wear an expensive suit and oozes effortless charm.”
Howey’s charming new character also reportedly “has disruptor tenacity and likes thinking outside the box just like [the precinct’s] all-star consultant Morgan. He has a way of putting himself right in the middle of the action… whether he’s wanted there or not.”
David Giuntoli to Recur in Season 2 as Mysterious Game Master
High Potential‘s first season ended with the introduction of a twisted game master, played by David Giuntoli of Grimm and A Million Little Things fame. After putting Morgan’s team through hell, he has selected her as his next target, which leaves us with one question: who is he?!
Our prevailing theory is that Giuntoli’s unnamed character is someone from Morgan’s past, either a protege of her father or perhaps even a half-brother she didn’t know existed.
“I love a good serialized villain,” High Potential showrunner Todd Harthan tells TVLine. “I also love going into a Season 2 where there might be another surprise or two, so it’s a bit of an open box.” Giuntoli’s mysterious character “definitely has the potential” to become a Big Bad, popping in and out of Morgan’s life when she least expects (or wants) him to.
Season 2 Will Reveal ‘What Caused’ Morgan and Ludo’s Split
On the romance front, High Potential fans likely spent the show’s first season ‘shipping Morgan with one of two lucky gentleman — Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), her new partner at the LAPD, or Tom (JD Pardo), the janitor-turned-nurse whose relocation to San Diego threw a serious wrench in their budding relationship.
But what about Ludo (Taran Killam), Morgan’s DMV instructor ex and the father of her two younger children? Based on everything we saw in Season 1, he’s kind, affable and extremely helpful around the house. So what happened to end their relationship, especially so soon after Morgan gave birth to Chloe? And does Ludo hope to one day reignite their spark, or is he content to remain a platonic co-parent?
According to Harthan, there just wasn’t enough room in High Potential‘s 13-episode first season to properly explore Morgan and Ludo’s complicated situation — but that’s about to change.
“I think the audience has a real appetite to find out what really happened,” Harthan tells TVLine. “What was it like the day they sat down and had a conversation about what wasn’t working? How did they decide how they should co-parent? What caused that? So now it’s our job to come up with a story.”
As for how that story will unfold, Harthan suggests multiple potential scenarios: Morgan might get a case “that hits a certain nerve and reminds her of that period in their lives,” or perhaps “a new love coming into one of their lives where they have to sort of explore that chapter.” Either way, the showrunner promises, “We absolutely will tell that story. What happened between them? I think we’re going to answer that question this year.”
What’s the Status of Morgan and Tom?
Frankly, it’s unclear whether Tom is still in the running for Morgan’s heart. He was able to make it to Los Angeles for the finale’s police ball, but long-distance relationships don’t always work out long-term. Though Harthan can’t say for sure whether Tom will be back in Season 2, he’s hopeful that we haven’t seen the last of this hunky nurse.
“I love the guy, and I love the character,” Harthan tells TVLine. “There’s a lot of affection, and nobody did anything bad to each other. There’s a lovely thing there, so who knows?”
That said, Pardo’s recent casting as a series regular on the new Netflix show Trinity makes it a lot less likely that we’ll see more of Tom in Season 2.
Season 2 Will Dive Into the Team’s Personal Lives
First of all, we’d like to apologize to Oz for using the word “dive” up there. After what he experienced in the finale, it was probably too soon. And while we’re discussing Oz’s little scare…
“[I want] to get the person who put me in the pool,” Deniz Akdeniz told TVLine when we spoke to the High Potential cast on the ABC Upfront carpet. “I want to make sure we get them and put them in cuffs!” But will he? That’s just one of many “unanswered questions … that we’ll hopefully get to answer” in Season 2, Akdeniz added. (Watch his and Javicia Leslie’s full interview in the video above.)
Judy Reyes also has a few questions about her character, Lieutenant Selena Soto, that she’d like to have answered in Season 2: “I want to explore who she’s really like as a person outside of the precinct, who she’s like as a friend,” Reyes told us. “Is she a parent? What’s her emotional history? And how does that bring her and [Morgan] closer together?”
Season 2 Will Offer ‘Bigger’ Clues to the Roman Mystery
The finale included a dual twist about Morgan’s estranged ex: not only is Roman alive, but Karadec (via some intel from his former partner) knows where he is! Harthan can’t promise an immediate reunion between Morgan and Roman, but he confirms that this particular storyline will get more air time moving forward than it did in Season 1.
“I think it has to kick up a notch,” Harthan tells TVLine. “If I keep it at the same level, just dipping our toe in the water instead of jumping into the pool, that’s the kind of thing that might frustrate the audience. So I think we have to find meaningful upgrades and give them bigger bites of story, if you will, in Season 2. It’ll be a little bit of a deeper dive.”