‘Cascadia’ Adds Six New Talents to Highly Anticipated Second Season as Production Wraps After Year-Long Recording Across Canada

EXCLUSIVE: The critically acclaimed sci-fi thriller podcast Cascadia is expanding its already stacked ensemble. Producers announced today that six additional actors have joined the highly anticipated second season, as production officially wrapped this week following nearly a year of recording.

The new casting update comes roughly a year after the series first unveiled its core Season 2 cast in an earlier press release that generated buzz across the audio fiction world. Since then, creators Adam Murciano and Antonio Cordero have been quietly building what they describe as their most ambitious season yet.

Season 2 was recorded across two major production hubs, Toronto and Vancouver, bringing together performers from across the country and creating what the creators say is a dynamic, nationwide roster of talent.

“From the beginning, we wanted Season 2 to feel bigger in every possible way,” Murciano and Cordero said in a joint statement. “Recording half the season in Toronto and the other half in Vancouver allowed us to collaborate with incredible actors from across Canada. We really pulled out all the stops to create a dynamic, country-wide roster for this season.”

According to the producers, the new season unfolds across three major storylines designed to keep listeners constantly on edge. The result is a layered and immersive listening experience that builds on the mysteries introduced in the show’s breakout first season.

(L-R) Darien Martin, Olivia Ay, Kyle Warren, Sena Yurika, Gian Carlo V and Blake Stadel

Among the newly announced cast members is Darien Martin (Cross, Alert: Missing Person’s Unit), who plays Jack Lorne, an American Coast Guard executive involved in a dramatic rescue mission after 200 Japanese refugees are forced to evacuate the island of Kural following a volcanic eruption.

Joining him is Blake Stadel (The Chicken Sisters, Riverdale), who portrays Captain Harding, the no-nonsense leader of the U.S. Coast Guard vessel attempting to evacuate the refugees before disaster strikes. As tensions mount aboard the ship, relationships between key figures begin to fracture, raising the stakes of the already dangerous mission.

The season also introduces newcomers Olivia Ay, Sena Yurika, and Gian Carlo V, who play a family struggling to escape the increasingly unstable island - a storyline producers say will ground the larger mystery in deeply personal stakes.

Rounding out the latest casting announcement is Kyle Warren (The 100), who will portray Eugene, the owner of Bluewave Media - a sleazy, relentless journalist determined to break the story of the missing boat over the Cascadia Subduction Zone at any cost.

As previously announced, the second season begins when an emergency rescue vessel carrying 200 refugees from the coast of Japan mysteriously disappears over the Cascadia Subduction Zone. What starts as a routine humanitarian mission quickly spirals into something far more unsettling, as secrets from both the past and present begin to collide.

Leading the previously announced cast is Rebecca Durance Hine, who plays Lila Walters, now a world-class deep-sea diver still haunted by the events of Season 1. She is joined by Dan Willmott (Mean Girls, Fargo), who takes on the role of an aged-up Holden Davis from Season 1, now the head of Hydra-Corp and a central figure in the unfolding mystery.

Rounding out the core diving team are Jesse Collin (The Recruit), Nathan Taylor (Morningside), Emily Stranges (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come), and André Dae Kim (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), who embark on the mission alongside Lila.

Meanwhile, Megan Allen (The Expanse, Schitt’s Creek) and Josette Halpert (Ghostwriter, Priscilla) play investigative journalist Dani and her intern Bri, who work under Eugene at Bluewave Media as they attempt to uncover the truth behind what’s happening at Cascadia, only to find themselves entangled in a story that presents a major conflict of interest that rocks Dani to her core…

The podcast first premiered in 2021 and quickly gained traction, reaching No. 1 on Apple Podcasts’ fiction charts and building a devoted global fanbase. Since then, Cascadia has amassed more than 700,000 downloads and expanded internationally, including a French-language adaptation produced by Blynd Audio.

The success of the series also helped launch its production banner, 911 Podcasts, co-founded by Murciano and Cordero. The company has since expanded its slate with projects including the horror series ICE-CREAM and the comedy podcast Supermarket, demonstrating a growing presence in the audio storytelling space.

Now, with production complete and a larger scope than ever before, Season 2 is positioned to be the most ambitious chapter yet.

“Cascadia was our debut show, and it means so much not just to us, but to people around the world,” Murciano previously said. “This content lives out there forever. People may discover it decades from now, so we want to make sure we approach it with a lot of thought and care.”

An official premiere date has not yet been announced, though the creators say it’s closer than fans might expect, with an official trailer set to be released soon. Season 1 of Cascadia is currently available to stream on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other major podcast platforms.