While covering New York Comic Con 2025, I attended the press conference for the second season of Cross and asked executive producer/showrunner Ben Watkins, Matthew Lillard, and Wes Chatham about bringing new characters and dynamics to the crime-thriller. The show is based on James Patterson’s best-selling book series.
Starring Aldis Hodge, CROSS is a Washington DC based crime drama that follows Alex Cross, a brilliant homicide detective and forensic psychologist, uniquely capable of digging into the minds of serial killers in order to identify and catch them. In Season Two, Cross is in pursuit of a ruthless vigilante who is hunting down corrupt billionaire magnates.
“Lance Durand is very exciting, for everyone in every capacity,” Lillard expressed, jokingly. “Look, when you’re joining a cast like this, when you’re joining a hit show, you want to make sure that you hold up your end of the bargain, right? And so, when you’re sitting in scenes with these incredible actors, speaking words that are fantastic, you know that it’s a call to action that you want to bring your A-game, right? The show goes on, and it’s revealed, every week, we’re getting a new script, every week, we’re being revealed what happens next, and so for those of us joining, it’s exciting to be a part of something that’s such a high level and calls on you to be your best every single day.”
Chatham, who joins as Donnie, continued by adding, “Yeah, I mean, I think I have an enormous respect for all the actors in the show, the showrunner, and the writing, and the first season being responded to so greatly, and then it’s like, watching the Lakers and you get to go play for the Lakers. So, you want to be your very best. You feel inspired and great. The great thing about this cast, crew, and writers is it was extremely welcoming. It felt really supportive, and you immediately feel at ease. You feel relaxed, which makes you bold in the decisions you make as an actor, and I think the secret of that show is the support and how safe everyone feels to be able to do what they want to do and make creative choices.”
“I want to just say, as a storyteller, one of the things that turned out to be really surprising, but in retrospect, I should have expected it, this show is set up for refreshing the cast every season. I hadn’t really thought about that,” Watkins, who created the show, explained. “We have an amazing forecast, and so coming back for season two, it’s almost like coming back from summer break, but going to a school you love with classmates you love. But then, to absorb a whole other portion of cast, and they’re regulars for that season, so that is the family for that season, it was so gratifying to just kind of notice that and say, oh my goodness, this alone refreshes your whole show, to have these new wild cards at play and different energies. Forget the storyline being different. Forget the characters being different. Just having folks like Wes and Jeanine Mason, who’s not here today, and Matt, join the cast and really bring this new flavor to it was really, really refreshing.”
The first three episodes of season two are now streaming on Prime Video. New episodes will be released weekly, leading up to the season finale on March 18.
