"The Terminal List" Season 2 is dropping its first teaser trailer, withChris Pratt returning as former Navy SEAL commander James Reece – and revealing a big surprise.
Former SEAL bestie Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) is back in the Aug. 20 trailer, despite being killed by Reece in the heartbreaking 2022 Season 1 finale that helped propel the series into a franchise. The Pratt-Kitsch pairing proved so dynamic that Kitsch returned for the prequel series "The Terminal List: Dark Wolf."
As the double-vision proves, Edwards' return in "The Terminal List" Season 2 (Prime Video, streaming Oct. 21) is a product of Reece's troubled mind. After hunting down everyone on his list responsible for the deaths of his SEAL team, wife and daughter in Season 1, Reece,
who has a brain tumor, is now a fugitive struggling at sea on Edwards' old boat.
Yes, the same boat on which he presumably shot his former best friend for betraying him in Season 1.
"People have to understand that ghosts or dead characters can appear in the narrative," Pratt tells USA TODAY. "So we're dealing with a guy in Reece who's literally having hallucinations and conflations. We're tip-toeing to where it's essentially memories from his life are crossing over to the present moment."
There's also plenty of guilt. Season 2 is based on former SEAL and best-selling author Jack Carr's second novel, "True Believer," which features Reece wrestling with survivor's guilt, along with the burden of having killed so many people – including beloved Ben Edwards.
"Each book has its own theme. The first 'Terminal List' book dealt with revenge without constraint," says Carr, who is an executive producer on the series with Pratt, showrunner David DiGilio and Antoine Fuqua. "For the second book I needed to take Reece on a journey of violent redemption. Much of the first section is Reece learning to live again."
Reece learns how to live and kill again in 'Terminal List' Season 2
Reece learns how to live again. And how to kill again in the series that showcases hyper-realistic tactics and battles overseen by military executive producers Jared Shaw, a former Navy SEAL (who starred as Boozer in Season 1), and Max Adams, a former Army Ranger.
Reece is pulled out of his fugitive life to help the government thwart a terrorist organization that appears to involve his friend and former Iraqi commando Mohammed "Mo" Farooq (Dar Salim).
"Reece inherits a new list of people to kill," says Pratt. "Despite what is going on in his brain he has a special set of skills. So we make a big, heart-pounding military muscular thriller."
Season 2 features the addition of Gabriel Luna, a former SEAL turned CIA Ground Branch officer who works with Reece. Raife Hastings (Tom Hopper), Reece's longtime former SEAL friend introduced in "Dark Wolf," returns along with CIA operative Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth).
Journalist Katie Buranek (Constance Wu), who helped Reece expose the Season 1 conspiracy returns, but has to arm up against the Reece backlash.
'Terminal List' Season 2 release date
All eight episodes of "The Terminal List" Season 2 premiere on Oct. 21, streaming on Prime Video.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Taylor Kitsch returns in 'Terminal List' Season 2 first trailer
