It’s been exactly four months since Netflix’s Untamed Season 1 clawed its way into our collective psyches, leaving us breathless amid Yosemite’s granite cliffs and whispering pines. But forget the sleeper hit of summer 2025 – Eric Bana’s brooding park ranger Kyle Turner is roaring back in Season 2, and the internet is already a dumpster fire of spoilers, screams, and “just one more episode” confessions. Dropping all seven episodes last Friday, November 14, the second installment of this wilderness thriller isn’t just a sequel; it’s a full-throated evolution that’s got viewers glued to their screens, pausing only to raid the fridge or text friends: “Have you SEEN this yet?!”

If you somehow missed the first season (and shame on you – it racked up 85 million hours viewed in its debut week), Untamed is the gritty, gorgeously shot crime drama that transplants True Detective-style brooding to America’s national parks. Co-created by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) and Elle Smith, with executive production from John Wells (Shameless), it stars Bana as Kyle Turner, a grizzled special agent for the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch (ISB). Think FBI, but with bear spray, trail maps, and a moral compass as jagged as Half Dome. In Season 1, Kyle’s routine patrol shatters when a climber’s “accidental” plunge from El Capitan uncovers a web of poaching rings, buried family secrets, and a personal demon from his estranged daughter’s past that hits harder than a rockslide.

Bana, 56 and looking every bit the weathered Aussie transplant turned American everyman, owns the role like he was born in khakis and hiking boots. His Kyle isn’t your typical square-jawed hero – he’s a chain-smoking widower with a limp from a long-ago wolf attack (yes, really), haunted by the wife he couldn’t save and the daughter who won’t forgive him. Season 1’s finale twist – that the killer wasn’t some faceless outsider but a park ranger Kyle mentored, driven mad by climate grief – left jaws on the floor and Netflix scrambling for renewal papers. “I’ve played monsters before,” Bana quipped in a Tudum interview, referencing his Hulk days. “But Kyle? He’s the guy trying to keep them out of the wild.”

Season 2 doesn’t just pick up the threads; it yanks them into a bonfire. Kyle’s reassigned – no more cozy Yosemite familiarity. He’s shipped to the fog-choked, predator-riddled wilds of Olympic National Park in Washington, where the rain never stops and the trees hide more than just Sasquatch legends. “We wanted to strip him of his comfort zone,” showrunner Mark L. Smith told Variety. “Yosemite was his backyard; Olympic’s a beast that fights back.” The new mystery? A string of “animal attacks” on remote hikers that forensics screams are anything but – think ritualistic eviscerations staged to look like cougar kills, with cryptic symbols carved into bark that echo indigenous lore Kyle’s only half-remembered from his Army days.

The body count ramps up fast, and so does the paranoia. Kyle’s first night in his creaky ranger cabin? A guttural howl outside his window that has you jumping like it’s your own backdoor. By Episode 2, he’s knee-deep in a conspiracy linking eco-terrorists, a shady logging conglomerate, and a cultish group of “rewilders” who believe humans are the real invasive species. Bana’s physicality shines here – gone are the controlled Yosemite stakeouts; now it’s mud-slicked chases through Hoh Rainforest, where every fern frond could conceal a blade. “Eric threw himself into the practical stunts,” Elle Smith revealed on the Untamed companion podcast. “He dislocated a shoulder rappelling a real cliff. Method acting? More like masochistic.”

The supporting cast levels up too, blending holdovers with fresh blood to keep the unease percolating. Rosemarie DeWitt returns as Kyle’s ex-wife Jill, the park botanist whose “accidental” poisoning in Season 1’s mid-finale was a red herring that still stings. She’s sharper now, teaming with Kyle on the sly while hiding her own terminal diagnosis – their rain-soaked reunion in Episode 4, trading barbs over lukewarm coffee, is the kind of raw chemistry that demands a spinoff. Lily Santiago reprises her role as rookie ISB analyst Mia Reyes, but she’s no longer the wide-eyed newbie; post-Yosemite trauma has her packing heat and a grudge, her hacker skills uncovering a digital trail that points straight to Kyle’s old Army buddy (guest star Sam Neill, chilling as a reclusive ex-colonel with a private zoo of exotic predators).

New faces inject rocket fuel: Eiza González slinks in as Lena Voss, a seductive wildlife photographer who’s either Kyle’s ally or his undoing – her flirtatious interrogations in a storm-lashed lighthouse (Episode 3’s bottle episode) crackle with Body Heat tension. Fedja van Huêt (The OA) plays the enigmatic park superintendent Harlan Crowe, a soft-spoken Kiwi with eyes like polished obsidian, whose “open-door policy” hides a locked basement full of taxidermy horrors. And don’t sleep on newcomer Jonah Wharton as young rewilder activist Theo, a feral teen whose viral TikToks about “nature’s revenge” blur the line between suspect and symptom.

Visually, Untamed Season 2 is a love letter to the Pacific Northwest – shot on location in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest (standing in for Olympic), with cinematographer Greig Fraser (Dune) turning mist-shrouded cedars into a character as alive as the cast. The score, a throbbing mix of didgeridoo drones and synthetic howls from Hildur Guðnadóttir (Joker), amps the dread; that recurring motif of a distant wolf pack? It’ll echo in your nightmares. Pacing-wise, it’s a beast: Episodes 1-3 build the isolation like a slow avalanche, then Episodes 4-7 unleash the fury in a gauntlet of betrayals, chases, and a mid-season gut-punch reveal that recontextualizes Season 1’s entire poaching subplot.

Critics are feral for it. The Hollywood Reporter hailed it as “Bana’s career zenith, a Yellowstone for the eco-apocalypse set,” while IndieWire gave it an A-: “Season 2 doesn’t just thrill; it terrifies by making the wilderness complicit in the crimes.” Audiences? They’re the real story. Since drop day, Untamed S2 has topped Netflix’s global charts, surpassing 60 million views in 72 hours – with #UntamedS2 racking up 1.8 billion impressions on X. TikTok is flooded with “binge confessions”: “Started at 8 PM, finished at 4 AM, now I’m afraid of my backyard,” one user wailed over a sped-up chase scene edit. Reddit’s r/NetflixBestOf is a war room of theories – “Theo’s the killer, change my mind!” – while fan cams mash Kyle’s brooding stares with The Weeknd’s “Heartless.” Even Bana’s jumping in, live-tweeting Episode 5’s twist: “You lot are too smart. Or am I too predictable? 🐺 #Untamed.”

Bana himself calls it “the role that reignited me.” In a Variety profile, he dishes on the shift: “Season 1 was about reclaiming control; this one’s about surrendering to chaos. Kyle’s not just hunting killers – he’s hunting the beast in himself.” At a press junket last week, he joked about the physical toll: “I’ve got ticks in places ticks shouldn’t be. But for this? Worth every bite.” The show’s timely edge – weaving climate anxiety, indigenous land rights, and corporate greed into the thrills – elevates it beyond procedural. As Mia tells Kyle in Episode 6, amid a torch-lit standoff: “The parks aren’t escapes anymore. They’re battlegrounds.”

Will there be a Season 3? Showrunners are coy, but with Bana locked in through 2027 and whispers of a Yellowstone spinoff, the wilds seem endless. For now, fire up Netflix – but maybe leave the lights on. Untamed Season 2 isn’t just bingeable; it’s addictive, primal, and proof that Eric Bana’s second act is his fiercest yet. One warning: When the credits roll on that finale (no spoilers, but pack tissues and a flashlight), you’ll stare at your walls wondering what’s lurking in the shadows.