Shyamalan’s FOX ‘Wayward Pines’ Unexpectedly Renewed for Season 2

Despite an overall mediocre reception, and a full five months since its first season finale, FOX’s M. Night Shyamalan-fronted Wayward Pines will live on after all. FOX has officially ordered a second season for 2016, but should we expect an all-new cast, as predicted?

Per Deadline, the second season of Wayward Pines has been set for Summer 2016, though it’s unlikely anyone from the previous cast will return, given the lapsed contracts. Shyamalan will remain aboard as executive producer, though Believe creator Mark Friedman will replace Chad Hodge as showrunner.

The first season also largely covered the span of Blake Crouch’s literary work, while the second synopsis reads thusly:

The second season will pick up in the wake of Season One, when a new arrival in Wayward Pines finds himself in the middle of a serious rebellion, as the residents battle over how to preserve the endangered human race.

Says FOX of the surprise renewal:

Wayward Pines was a huge hit for us this past summer. We were absolutely blown away by the mysterious and surprising world that Night and his team created, and the twisting-and-turning storytelling that drew viewers in from day one.

We won’t have the likes of Matt Dillion, Carla Gugino, Terrence Howard or Melissa Leo for Wayward Pines Season 2, but how might the series reinvent itself, without any kind of central twist?