A little over two months after announcing its renewal, Starz announced today that the 10-episode second season of the acclaimed drama series Vida has entered production in Los Angeles and has added two performers to the cast.
Raul Castillo (Looking) and Adrian Gonzalez (Superstore) have signed on for recurring roles in the series, with Castillo set to play Baco, the new handyman for Vida’s bar with a shady past, and Gonzalez portraying Rudy, a city councilman who Lyn meets in her gym class.
The premiere season of the series, created by Tanya Saracho based on the short story “Pour Vida” by Richard Villegas, Jr., centered around two Mexican-American sisters, Emma (Mishel Prada, Fear the Walking Dead: Passage) and Linda “Lyn” Hernandez (Melissa Barrera, Tanto Amor) from the Eastside of Los Angeles who couldn’t be more different or distanced from each other. Circumstances force them to return to their old neighborhood, where they are confronted by the past and surprising truth about their mother’s identity. As the season progressed, the two go on different introspective journeys as they learn of their mother’s secrets and how it affected how they live and act now.
Upon its debut in May, Vida was a hit for Starz with critics hailing the series for its fresh take on the familial genre and creation of a safe space for stories regarding Latinx and freedom of sexual identity, with the first season maintaining a 100% “Certified Fresh” rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes with 28 reviews. It was also a ratings success, with the season finale tripling its Hispanic household audience numbers since the series premiere, as well as an overall increase of 60% of total viewers, with the series premiere having seen 0.20 million viewers while the finale saw 0.163 million viewers.
“Vida has delivered on its promise of attracting a young, new Latinx audience to the STARZ platform, as we had hoped it would, and we are pleased to be able to announce a second season of the series,” Straz President and CEO Chris Albrecht said. “With these new episodes, Tanya and her team now have the opportunity to take audiences even deeper into the lives and community of the Hernandez sisters, and we look forward to bringing the next chapter of their story to life.”
Vida is created and executive produced by Saracho, who will maker her directorial debut in this season, alongside Big Beach TV’s Robin Schwartz, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub with Stephanie Langhoff (Togetherness, The Bronze, The Skeleton Twins). The return for Vida has yet to be announced, but the entire first season can currently be viewed on Starz On Demand.
