SHURCH.COM - What to Know About High Potential's Supersized Season 2 After Major Twist

High Potential is coming back — with more episodes — but what can fans expect from season 2 when it comes to plot twists, onscreen romance and more?

High Potential, which premiered in September 2024, follows a high-potential intellectual named Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) who teams up with the LAPD to help solve murders. She gets paired up with Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), who is initially skeptical about how Morgan can assist the Major Crimes unit but ultimately starts to rely on her.

The season 1 finale aired in February and confirmed that Morgan’s ex Roman was still alive after going missing for more than a decade. Morgan, however, was more focused on a new case where the suspect got away — and then he found a way to introduce himself to her without her knowledge.

Executive producer and showrunner Todd Harthan exclusively spoke to Us Weekly about the purpose of introducing a new mystery ahead of the second season.

“The No. 1 thing that we try to build in the writers room is a compelling case that will also be really wonderful to watch Morgan’s complicated brain take you through,” he explained at the time. “That then is complimented by these wonderful detectives that are surrounding her. We know the audience — and we as the writers — have a big appetite for that serialized mystery. But the challenge is you don’t want that serialized component to overtake these wonderful cases that the audience looks forward to every week.”

Harthan continued: “Finding that balance is tricky and that’s why you have a staff of people that come in and keep you honest. They tell me, ‘If we reveal that, then it really overtakes the next episode and upsets the balance.’ So it’s tricky and it is one of the harder parts of building each episode of the show.”

Despite the cliffhangers, High Potential has already been renewed for a second season. Keep scrolling for everything to know:

When Does the Show Return for Season 2?

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In January, High Potential was renewed for a second season, which will include 18 episodes. It is slated to premiere in the fall after season 1 brought in record-breaking numbers at ABC.

Who Is Coming Back?

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In addition to Olson and Sunjata, Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, Matthew Lamb and Judy Reyes are returning. High Potential has also featured Taran Killam, Garret Dillahunt and JD Pardo in recurring roles.

Will There Be More Episodes?

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“I do listen to the fans, I read their responses because I want to know what people are loving. It does have an impact on what we talk about and what we focus on sometimes,” Harthan told Us in February about getting the chance to expand the story with more episodes in season 2. “I always count on the 13 [episode order]. I love that it’s not eight or 10 episodes on broadcast and that you get those extra few hours. I usually map out the 13, and if they call, then I have a contingency to expand it and do some standalone episodes.”

Will Roman Be Introduced?

After Morgan’s ex was teased in the first season, the story will only expand from here.

“We’ve talked about it quite a bit like, ‘Wow, we have the time, and hopefully now the show is a success and we could go and get this actor or that actor.’ But the truth is, I haven’t had a deep conversation with Kaitlin about it — and she’ll have a strong opinion. She’s very active and involved with casting and has incredible instincts,” Harthan told Us. “So the short answer is no. We have some favorites and actors I really respect that would be great.”

Harthan is looking forward to bringing more characters into the fold in season 2, adding, “Just the casting opportunities — not just for guest star roles — but recurring roles. We’ve never met Morgan’s mother and father either. We haven’t met anybody. So Roman is a really important and amazing piece of casting. I fantasize about who it could be but I haven’t zeroed in on a person yet.”

According to Harthan, Olson has a hand in casting. “Kaitlin is a magnet for talent. There’s a lot of people that go, ‘Oh, I get to act alongside her? That looks like a really good time.’ And they are right, It is,” he continued. “She’s a blast. But I hope you’re right [that there is actor interest in guest-starring on High Potential]. I want to see that list of people that want to come and dance with us.”

Roman might not return right away though.

“I think frustration is a good thing with an audience. It is a healthy frustration — don’t give them too much of what they want too soon,” Harthan noted about the “deepening” mystery. “I’d be totally lying if I said I have all the answers to that mystery. The wonderful thing about welcoming other brains to the room is how we make sure we don’t fumble this ball and we tell this story in the most satisfying way imaginable. There’s some cool stuff coming though.”

Will Season 2 Explore Morgan and Karadec’s Romance?

One episode into High Potential, fans pointed out how Karadec and Morgan’s dynamic reminded them of other fictional couples on procedural shows who took years to get together.

“I will definitely say that I actually don’t have the actual ultimate answer to where they’re going to go. In terms of the will-they-won’t-they between Karadec and Morgan, that is up to our writers room,” Sunjata told Us in November 2024. “I think that they’re going to play the long game with that particular story line.”

Sunjata said he was not ruling out Karadec and Morgan remaining platonic — for now or even for good.

“Honestly if we ended up getting like five seasons, Karadec and Morgan could just stay really good friends with a mutual professional respect who deeply care for one another and maybe flirted with the idea of some kind of romantic interaction,” he noted. “But if that never happened, that would be a really cool way to take it also.”

Harthan, meanwhile, is more inclined to explore what viewers were reacting to.

“You never know. I don’t let my guard down about those things either. I don’t get overly confident until your audience dictates a lot of the things you do. What do they have a big appetite for?” Harthan shared with Us about his plans for the fan-favorite potential couple. “I might be infamous for slow-planning things, but I love a slow burn. Like, selfishly, I just love it.”

Harthan explained to Us that he wasn’t sure how Morgan and Karadec’s chemistry would be explored. “The biggest reason is because when you have chemistry like that — and two wonderful actors like that — I just feel like there’s so many different story paths,” he explained. “We can go down this early in the show. And what I love about them is this budding friendship that is starting to breed the kind of loyalty that then breeds the kind of unconditional friendship where people are willing to sacrifice just about anything to have each other’s backs. I love the charm of that.”

He added: “We’re going to write that for a while. Even if you at some point fall in love with somebody, maybe you also are more in love with the partnership and the friendship. And maybe you are scared enough of the risk of crossing certain lines. … There’s a lot of life in this show and I want to make sure we do it at a pace that doesn’t leave a good story on the table.”

How Does the New Big Bad Come Into Play?

What to Know About High Potential's Supersized Season 2

The season 1 finale introduced David Giuntoli as a serial kidnapper who has potential — pun intended — to become the “serialized big bad” of season 2.

“We didn’t want [that story] to be so dark and so sadistic and brutal that it took you into a sort of a tone that felt like a departure from our show. That was a little bit of a fine line that we had to walk. Then if you’re going to have somebody go toe to toe with somebody like Morgan, they better be brilliant. They better be confident and they better be ready,” Harthan told Us. “She gets underestimated even by people that think they’re smarter than her and then look out. So we have to create a character that’s going to be fun to watch her play chess with.”

Harthan is hoping the shakeup will make the show not “feel predictable.”

“At her core, Morgan is such a good and empathetic human being. Then she sees somebody out there in the world who she knows is brilliant but is using that to do such harm, and that’s a terrifying thing,” he continued. “We just wanted to make sure it hit all those notes without it ever feeling like we were reaching into the darkest of serial killer stories. That’s not the show.”

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Will Season 2 Do Anything Differently?

“I learned [in season 1] that I have this wonderful cast that you can write anything for. They really are,” Harthan shared with Us. “With that said, what is going to be quite different in season 2 is that we didn’t have our sea legs yet. We haven’t really scratched the surface of some of those other characters in the ensemble. We haven’t gone home with a lot of them. We haven’t dug into their backstories and how they got to where they are in life — like, all their trials, tribulations and relationships.”

At the time, Harthan teased how season 2 would offer “rich fertile ground” for the show to expand on.

“We’re excited about writing some of the other characters more. But I think the biggest thing I learned about how we build each of these episodes is why do we care? Why do you care about this particular case or how it’s resonating with not just Morgan but every character,” he told Us. “It is making sure that we don’t get lazy with those stories that we choose to tell each week. I try to look at each episode as its own little movie, and this year, we have the luxury of the lessons we learned — good and bad — and planning and plotting the season so that we don’t waste any one of these episodes. However many episodes we end up getting, we will just try to treat each of them as their own little movie.”

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