FBI: MOST WANTED Boss on Diving Deeper into Character Arcs in Season 2

FBI: MOST WANTED returns for its sophomore season on Tuesday, November 17, with a new boss and a very different world.

“You can’t ignore COVID,” showrunner David Hudgins acknowledged via email. “It’s a fact of American life right now, and we want the show to feel grounded, so it’s part of our characters’ world. Thematically there’s an undercurrent of of both fatigue and desperation in the populace that informs certain fugitives.”

But through it all, the team—Supervisory Special Agent Jess LaCroix (Julian McMahon), Special Agent Kenny Crosby (Kellan Lutz), Special Agent Sheryll Barnes (Roxy Sternberg), Special Agent Hana Gibson (Keisha Castle-Hughes), and Special Agent Clinton Skye (Nathaniel Arcand)—is focused on tracking down criminals on the Most Wanted list. (The season kicks off with the Fugitive Task Force trying to track down gunmen who are targeting “the elite class they perceive to be oppressing them.”)

Here, Hudgins previews the show’s sophomore season, including guest stars Amy Carlson and Terry O’Quinn, diving deeper into the team’s personal lives and the group dynamic, and more…

Coming into the show with fresh eyes, what was your approach for arcing out this season? What was the balance you wanted to strike with personal stories for the team and the cases of the week?
The hunt for the fugitive of the week is the heart of the show, and we’ll never go away from that. But we do want to emphasize character more, and we spent time in the writers’ room talking about each characters’ personal life and planning how to fit those stories organically into the episodes. We’ll go home with more of our team this season—not just Jess. Real life will intervene more while they’re out on the hunt. But as you correctly point out—it’s a balancing act. We want to keep the drive and propulsion that makes the show so entertaining to watch.

The show seems to be tackling COVID head-on. What led to that decision? And for the characters who have children, how much are we going to be seeing them struggling with balancing their evolving home responsibilities and a job that takes them away from their families during these uncertain times?
You can’t ignore COVID. It’s a fact of American life right now, and we want the show to feel grounded, so it’s part of our characters’ world. Thematically there’s an undercurrent of of both fatigue and desperation in the populace that informs certain fugitives. But we’re also trying to entertain, so we want to use a light touch. Kids and home responsibilities for Jess and Barnes are part of their stories too.

There are two new faces coming in with Amy Carlson and Terry O’Quinn. What can you preview about their characters and how they’re going to interact with Jess?
Terry O’Quinn is fantastic and plays Jess LaCroix’s father. It’s a story of reconciliation and forgiveness as we unpack their difficult relationship and get a window into Jess’ backstory. Terry has a natural gravitas and a gift for comedy that feels really fresh in the show.

Amy Carlson plays a bounty hunter named Jackie who doesn’t have to play by the same rules as our team. She and Jess have crossed paths before and our team has to figure out to turn her from nemesis into ally. It doesn’t come easy, which is the fun of the story.

What can you tease about the cases we’ll see at the start of season 2?
We’ve got a pair of unlikely snipers terrorizing a factory town in Pennsylvania, a talented but misfit hacker who escalates to a very chilling target, and a really great story about Jess chasing down his white whale‚a bank robber who got away 18 years ago and is now back for his final swan song. We’re also doing an episode where the team is hunting a fringe militia group which has been fascinating to work on.

In writing the ensemble, what pairings or groups have you found work best together so far? Have there been any unexpected quasi-partnerships you’re playing with within the team that we may not have seen in the first year?
Jess LaCroix is the heart of the team so anyone with him always works, he’s so damn watchable. We have a storyline this year with Hana and Crosby outside work, we’ve got Clinton integrated into Jess’ family life more, and we’re also doing a personal story with Barnes and her wife that resonates back to her relationship with the team. The basic idea is that the team is a family, and the relationships amongst them will get explored in more detail.

The first season of the show really seemed to be heavily leaning on location shoots, often in what appeared to be the outskirts of town. How have the production restrictions altered that pattern, and how has the show had to adapt?
It’s been a challenge. FBI: MOST WANTED is a road show—on screen and in real life. You want to see the team out in the world chasing down fugitives, so by nature you have a lot of locations. We’ve been lucky because our crew is so good and experienced and they’ve worked incredibly hard to deliver on we give them from the writers’ room. Honestly, I don’t think the audience will notice much difference.

FBI: MOST WANTED, Season Premiere, Tuesday, November 17, 10/9c, CBS

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