‘Widow’s Bay’ Season 2 Ups Jeff Hiller to Series Regular
The best new show of 2026 is coming back for more. Widow’s Bay has been renewed for Season 2 at Apple TV. The Season 1 finale came out on Wednesday, June 17. Apple TV has also set a multi-year overall deal with Widow’s Bay creator Katie Dippold, and we now have the first new casting update.
Jeff Hiller will be a series regular in Widow’s Bay Season 2, per Deadline. Hiller plays Dale, the employee at the mayor’s office who discovered the terrifying archival footage revealing dark secrets of the island in the Season 1 finale and screamed in the storm bunker, “This place is a death trap, run!” Get a breakdown of what the cast and creators are hoping for in Widow’s Bay Season 2 here.
Apple announced the renewal on June 11 after the series got a lot of attention from critics and fans. Viewers on social media have been wondering if the show’s creator, Parks and Recreation‘s Dippold, imagined this as a multi-season story or a one-and-done affair. Here’s what we know about Widow’s Bay Season 2 after the show’s 19 Emmy nominations. Warning: Widow’s Bay finale spoilers ahead!
Is Widow’s Bay renewed?
Apple TV
Yes, Widow’s Bay Season 2 is officially in the works.
“From the moment audiences arrived in Widow’s Bay, they’ve been hooked on every eerie mystery, unexpected laughs, and cursed secret that Katie, Hiro, Matthew, and the entire team have created,” said Matt Cherniss, head of programming, Apple TV, on June 11. “It’s become one of those shows everyone’s talking about, and we’re thrilled to see audiences continue to embrace it. We can’t wait to return for another season.”
“Season 2 is about how everything is great on the island and there’s nothing to worry about,” said creator, showrunner, and executive producer Katie Dippold.
Apple TV
When does Widow’s Bay Season 2 come out?
A premiere date will be announced at a later time. The writers’ room has assembled as of August 2026, Dippold told Deadline.
“Week 3, feeling great,” she said. “I think it’s fun. With the groundwork laid in Season 1, they have a lot more room to grow in Season 2. I feel like I always look at Season 1 — what was really hard with that is having to lay all the groundwork. ‘Haunted Island’ sounds silly and terrible, honestly. I’m still happy they all signed up. It’s a tough pitch. I feel like a lot of groundwork was laid in Season 1 so you can buy it. So, it’s making Season 2 much more fun.”
What is Widow’s Bay about?
In Widow’s Bay, something lurks beneath the surface. Mayor Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys) is desperate to revive his struggling community on an island about 40 miles off the coast of New England. There’s no Wi-Fi, cellular reception is spotty, and he must contend with superstitious locals who believe their island is cursed. He wants these people to respect him. They don’t. They think he is soft and cowardly. And he is. But Loftis is determined to build a better future for his teenage son and turn the island into a tourist destination. Miraculously, he succeeds: Tourists are finally coming.
Unfortunately, the locals were right. After decades of calm, the old stories that seemed too ludicrous to be true start happening again. The show pulls inspiration from spooky classics from Stephen King and suspense thrillers such as Jaws, while creating its own unique blend of horror and comedy and original lore.
Who is in the Widow’s Bay cast?
Widow’s Bay stars Rhys (Tom), Kate O’Flynn (Patricia), Stephen Root (Wyck), Kingston Rumi Southwick (Evan), Kevin Carroll (Bechir), Dale Dickey (Rosemary), and Emmy Award-winner Jeff Hiller (Dale). The supporting cast includes K Callan (Ruth). Hiro Murai directed five out of the 10 episodes of Season 1, with the other episodes in the season directed by Ti West, Sam Donovan, and Andrew DeYoung.
How many episodes are in Widow’s Bay Season 1?
Apple TV
Widow’s Bay Season 1 has 10 episodes. Season 2 will likely follow suit.
Between critic praise and positive fan reactions (it has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes), the renewal chances seemed high, granted there was more story to tell. According to Dippold, there is.
Dippold told The Cut that “Season 1 is a lot about denial and repression and acceptance. Going forward would be about really living in it. What kind of leader can you be in these circumstances?”
We’ve seen the characters played by Rhys, O’Flynn, Root, and more tackle the island’s haunted figures ever since the mysterious fog rolled back in. Each episode has played into different horror hallmarks and referenced classics of the genre, and the flashback episodes — starring Betty Gilpin and Hamish Linklater — revealed how these ghouls came to be. The Season 1 finale opted against including any deliberate horror references and created its own horror instead.
The horror was very human, with Tom and Bechir (Carroll) both having to make an impossible choice and battling with themselves about whether a horrible action could be the right thing to do for the greater good. The finale also revealed that there were two living descendants of Richard Warren (Linklater), the colonial man whose bloodline maintained the island’s curse for hundreds of years.
What is Widow’s Bay Season 2 about?
Apple TV
One of the Warren descendants was killed off in the finale, and one more remains, resetting the dynamics for Season 2 completely as Tom will be forced to contend with having to keep the curse alive or find another way to break it.
Murai told TV Insider that the finale resets the show’s ability to return to anthology episodes like we saw in Season 1.
“What I love about the show is that it can do both. It can do the season arc lore stories, also drop down into bottle episodes where you can just watch episodes out of order,” he explained. “And so what I love about how the season concluded is that it resets the table so you can do small, episodic, anthology episodes again, but there’s the added complication that Tom knows about Evan, he has to protect him from getting out to the rest of the island that he is the last descendant. Bechir and him have a secret together. They both know that they went to Ruth’s to kill her. And so there’s a complicated dynamic there. I just think it just ratchets up what works in the show, what’s been working in the first season, without changing the dynamics.”
Widow’s Bay, Season 2 Premiere, TBA, Apple TV
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services