It's Cruel Summer season 2 release day, and fans of the anthology thriller series are in for a treat. A new clip shared exclusively with Teen Vogue sets up the dynamic between our new leads Megan (Sadie Stanley) and Isabella (Lexi Underwood) — and let's just say the drama and tense friendship dynamics are already set in motion.
Cruel Summer season 2 is set in a small Pacific Northwest town about to head into Y2K. Told across 1999 and 2000, the season focuses on the new friendship between Megan — a straight-laced coding genius who aspires to work at Apple — and Isabella — an adventurous exchange student who comes to live with Megan's family. According to the official synopsis, “the season twists and turns as it tracks the early friendship between Megan, Isabella and Megan’s best friend Luke (Griffin Gluck), the love triangle that blossomed, and the mystery that would impact all of their lives going forward.”
The new clip from Cruel Summer season 2 shows Isabella meeting Megan's group of friends for the first time. Megan, for her part, seems unsure, not totally fitting in even among her own friends. Isabella is charismatic, complimenting Parker (Lisa Yamada): "Great shirt, it's like very Gwen." (Underwood tells Teen Vogue that her character is a major Gwen Stefani fan, and that Underwood made a Y2K playlist loaded with Gwen hits.) She's even able to cooly one-up a guy who mocks her — while Megan looks on with newfound respect.
“What intrigues Megan about Isabella is her free spiritedness, and her recklessness, and her sense of adventure,” Stanley tells Teen Vogue. “It influences Megan to maybe see what else is out there. Maybe she doesn't have to follow this exact formula that she set out for herself, and maybe she can live a little in between.”
The season premiere of Cruel Summer season 2 is tonight, June 5, at 9 p.m. ET on Freeform. Episodes will air weekly throughout the summer. Check out a clip from the series below:
