Home TV News ‘Alex Rider’: Toby Stephens, Rakie Ayola & Charithra Chandran Join Season 2 Of Amazon Drama

‘Alex Rider’: Toby Stephens, Rakie Ayola & Charithra Chandran Join Season 2 Of Amazon Drama

by Dave Elliott

‘Alex Rider’: Toby Stephens, Rakie Ayola & Charithra Chandran Join Season 2 Of Amazon Drama

Amazon Alex Rider series will have some new faces when it returns for Season 2, as Toby Stephens (‘Die Another Day’, ‘Lost In Space’, ‘Black Sails’), Rakie Ayola (‘Holby City’, Hermione Granger in ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’) and newcomer Charithra Chandran join the cast.

The first season introduced Otto Farrant as Alex Rider, a London based teenager who has unknowingly been trained since childhood for the dangerous world of espionage. Season one was based on Anthony Horowitz’s novel Point Blanc, which is actually the second novel in the book series. Sticking with the tradition of not doing the tv show in the same order as the novels, season two will be based on Eagle Strike, the fourth novel in the best-selling Alex Rider franchise.

Toby Stephens will be playing energetic tech billionaire Damian Cray who is poised to launch a new version of his best-selling computer game, Feathered Serpent. This isn’t the first foray into the world of espionage for Stephens who did a memorable turn as the dastardly Gustav Graves opposite Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond in ‘Die Another Day’. More recently he has starred in the pirate drama ‘Black Sails’, and Netflix sci-fi ‘Lost In Space’.

“I’m really thrilled to be part of Alex Rider season two and working with Eleventh Hour Films again,” commented Stephens, who worked with Eleventh Hour on the BBC comedy-drama ‘Vexed’. “My son loves the Alex Rider books so it’s lovely to be a part of something that he recognises and enjoys – and it’s been a while since I played a good nemesis, so I’m really looking forward to being the bad guy and going toe to toe with Alex Rider.”

Rakie Ayola appears as Jo Byrne, the tough new Deputy Director of the CIA who is brought to the UK ahead of a visit by the US President. Ayola is probably best known for her role as Kyla Tyson in the BBC medical drama Holby City, but has also popped up in shows such as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Black Mirror’, ‘Silent Witness’, ‘No Offence’, ‘EastEnders’ and a slew of other UK drama. She also took over the role of Hermione Granger in the West End production of ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’.

Newcomer Charithra Chandran plays smart and confident teen Sabina Pleasance whose journalist father is writing a book on Cray and becomes entangled with Alex while on holiday in Cornwall. Chandran is a graduate from the University of Oxford and trained with the National Youth Theatre.

Otto Stephens, Ayola and Chandran will join returning season one co-stars Vicky McClure, Stephen Dillane, Brenock O’Connor and Ronke Adekoluejo. The first series was commissioned by SPT’s international production and distribution divisions on spec, and was then independently greenlit to be distributed worldwide.

As with season one, Anthony Horowitz, the author of the book franchise, will serve as an Executive Producer alongside Jill Green, Eve Gutierrez, and series writer Guy Burt.

“We are beyond thrilled to have Toby, Rakie and Charithra on board to bring to life these key characters for season two of Alex Rider,” adds Guiterrez. “We’ve been incredibly lucky that viewers have enthusiastically embraced the casting of season one and can’t wait to evolve the dynamic further with a fresh mission and even higher stakes.”

Alex Rider‘ Season 2 is currently in production, and will stream exclusively as an Amazon Original on Prime Video in the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Latin America, and as an IMDb TV Original in the US.

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