Jason Patric and Djimon Hounsou join the cast of Fox’s Wayward Pines for season two, with Patric playing Dr. Theo Yedlin and Hounsou playing CJ Mitchum. Yedlin’s described as a confident surgeon with leadership skills and Mitchum is a historian who understands the town’s unique setup and provides a “bridge between the current world of Wayward Pines and the previous world that humans inhabited.” Based on the bestselling books by Blake Crouch, Wayward Pines is executive produced by Crouch, M. Night Shyamalan, Donald De Line, Ashwin Rajan, and showrunner Mark Friedman.
Fox’s set to debut the first of season two’s 10 episodes on May 25, 2016 and at this year’s WonderCon in Los Angeles new co-stars Patric and Hounsou teamed up to talk about the upcoming season which is set shortly after the events of season one. And speaking of season one, Patric hasn’t seen it. “I saw the pilot and it was explained to me a little bit. I thought it was best that my character didn’t see any of that stuff because I’m dropped in the middle of it and so I wanted my reactions to be as pure as possible,” explained Jason Patric.
Patrick and Hounson describe the actual set of Wayward Pines the town as big and freaky. “It’s kind of like when you get on a roller coaster that you hate, that you despise. You didn’t like the first ride and it just continues,” said Hounsou, and Patric added, “There is a strange sort of never-ending timeless feeling about the town and the strangeness of it. I had a scene where I just walk in for the first time and it’s very much almost like a Western. Walk into the town and standing there, and this shot all the way down. It’s interesting.”
Both actors said one of the things that drew them to Wayward Pines was the fact it was such a short season and they didn’t have to commit to doing 20+ episodes. “I haven’t done television and I’ve never had to extend a character on stage or in a movie past two hours, and when you do that for 30 years… I mean, that’s the type of ballplayer I am. It is. So to try to find a way to extend something and in this way it was very cinematic,” said Patric. “I’m just looking at it as sort of 10 installments of a larger movie.”
“This is my first proper TV also and it threw my off a little bit when I first started. You get so much info and actually you don’t need all that info,” said Hounsou. “You’re starting here and that’s all that matters. It’s pretty engaging that way.”
“Not knowing what’s going to happen in the middle or the end really forces you to the present. But of course you bring who you are and what your skillset is,” offered Patric. Hounsou also felt the limited series format allowed him to be much more creative because he didn’t have any real preconceived notions about what’s happening down the line with his character. “I think it’s safe to just stay sort of content with the one storyline that you have and deal with that, and then you can figure out the next one.”
As for playing a doctor, Patric admitted he didn’t do any special research but viewers will have the opportunity to see his character practice medicine a little during this second season. “I used my great imagination,” said Patric, smiling. “If it was specifically about that and you saw that stuff, yeah. But if you see me doing stuff, you’ll buy it. Also, we’ve seen enough of those medical shows that I hope you’ll believe that I’m a doctor.”
