‘Big Sky’ Season 3: Henry Ian Cusick, Luke Mitchell & More to Recur, J. Anthony Pena Promoted

Henry Ian Cusick, Luke Mitchell
Paras Griffin/Getty Images for SCAD aTVfest 2019; Jim Spellman/Getty Images

Big Sky is shaping up to have quite the third season, with the latest casting changes and details about its new mystery.

For the third season, J. Anthony Pena, who plays Poppernak, Jenny Hoyt’s (Katheryn Winnick) partner at the Sheriff’s Department, has been upped to series regular, and the drama has added five new recurring characters, according to Deadline. They will be played by Luke Mitchell, Seth Gabel, Henry Ian Cusick, Anirudh Pisharody, and Madalyn Horcher.

J. Anthony Pena in Big Sky

ABC/Anna Kooris

The new mystery will see Jenny, private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury), and the sheriff introduced in the Season 2 finale, Beau Arlen (Jensen Ackles), investigating when a local backcountry trip, led by Reba McEntire’s mercurial matriarch and charismatic outfitter Sunny Barnes, goes awry.

Mitchell’s Cormac is Sunny’s “charming son,” who is responsible for ensuring the guests of the camping trips are “equipped and comfortable.” Gabel’s Walter is “a recluse who lives in a cabin in the Montana wilderness” and whose “unpredictable nature can make for menacing run-ins with stray hikers.”

Cusick will play Avery, “a well-meaning, successful tech entrepreneur who books himself and his stepdaughter Emily” on a camping trip. Pisharody and Horcher will play couple Luke and Paige, who’s responsible for them being on a camping trip for his birthday.

Big Sky ended its second season with Beau not getting off to the best start with Jenny or Cassie, after he came in to temporarily take over for Sheriff Tubb (Patrick Gallagher); he’d been retired after working in Houston. We learned he has a brother and followed his ex-wife (whom he’s probably still in love with) to Montana, where she and their daughter live with her new, rich husband. But by finale’s end, Beau joined Jenny and Cassie for drinks. The drama is moving nights for Season 3, from Thursdays to Wednesdays.

Big Sky, Season 3 Premiere, Wednesday, September 21, 10/9c, ABC