When the cast filmed those scenes, they had no idea if they would return for a second season and had their own theories about the secret location they were about to be flown off to.
“David (Macpherson, writer) threw us a curveball” star Iain Glen told Zavvi. “There was a Hawaiian theme to the season one wrap party, and we were completely seduced by the idea that this time there’d be beach scenes, and we’d need to pack our swimming trunks for the shoot!
“I couldn’t have imagined where this season would go, and David has taken it to pastures new – there’s a horrible plausibility to the storyline as we expand into the Arctic Circle.”
Glen returns as Magnus MacMillan, the leader of the Kinloch Bravo rig in the North Sea, which is now at the centre of a vast supernatural conspiracy. After becoming shrouded by a deadly fog which transformed several crew members, they discovered that their parent company Pictor Energy were responsible for manipulating the situation – and this time, its representative David Coake (Mark Addy) is leading efforts to buy their silence.
In the previous season, tragic events brought back demons from Magnus’ past, when his job stopped him from being around to protect his young son, who died in a car crash. With several of his former crew members dead on his watch, this guilt has only increased and is now shared by his superior Rose (Emily Hampshire), who despite representing Pictor, was in the dark about their destructive plans.
“There was a sense that, in the first season, Magnus and Rose weren’t really seeing each other”, Glen continued. “She witnessed me having a bit of a breakdown, and this time, I’m witnessing her wrestling with her demons, because she thinks that she’s failed the team as they died on her watch – that shared guilt becomes a uniting thing.”
The way in which Pictor exploit the fragile emotional states of their workers helps ground the supernatural drama this time around, with Glen highlighting this as the aspect of the series which feels most “horrifyingly plausible”.
He added: “The corporate cover up that you see is ripped from the headlines; money buys people out of problems all the time. It’s a terrible predicament to put someone in, to give them money so they can’t speak the truth, and only trying to reunite these people with their families and people they love if they agree to it – the alternative is being left to freeze to death in the Arctic.
“It’s an impossible dilemma forced upon people by companies who can sense their vulnerability.”
The Rig is one of the largest TV productions of all time to have filmed in Scotland, and no expense has been spared for this second season. This is apparent from the earliest episodes, as characters set foot onto vast Arctic landscapes – which were created entirely on a soundstage in Edinburgh, the actors only aware of the environments which would surround them via digital mock-ups on a tablet.
“You’re given a huge amount of help inside the studio, as you’ve got people throwing wind and snow at you”, Glen added. “But the team did a huge amount of research, making forays into the kinds of landscapes we were creating so they could bring as much reality into the studio as possible.
“It would have been impossible for us to have filmed on the ice in the real location, but the research team shot enough drone footage there to edit seamlessly with what we created in the studio – you won’t be able to tell what is and isn’t filmed on location. After Game Of Thrones, where I had to act looking at dragons, I already have plenty of experience in trying to immerse myself in a fantasy situation, but this was a lot easier because of what that team brought into the studio to help create that reality for us.”
Returning for season two, Hampshire remains surprised that she was cast in the series, as a hero scientist couldn’t be further against type for her.
“I’ve just watched the new season for the first time, and watching that back, it was the first time in my life where I thought maybe I could become an action hero! I never thought I would even be cast as a scientist, but now I’m playing someone who fits into a world which is feeling more epic than before.
“What I love is that, in season one, Rose is really toeing the company line, everything she does is motivated by climbing the ladder. In season two, she’s learning how to be a leader by being part of the crew, and that motivates her to go full Ripley!”
The Rig has resonated with audiences in part because of the parallels the storyline has with the current climate crisis, but on a far more relatable level as a vivid account of what it’s like to work a thankless job for a greedy boss.
“It’s the case with any story worth its salt, that the characters within it represent society in a microcosm”, Hampshire added. “This could be set on a rig, or this could be set in high school or anywhere else, and the results of seeing a group of people thrown together and forming these hierarchies would still be fascinating.”
The Rig Season 2 will premiere on Prime Video on Thursday, 2nd January.
