The recent reboot of the much loved children’s adventure show has been confirmed for a second series by ITV yesterday (18th December 2014) giving a pretty big indication that the return to Tracey Island is far from a fleeting hint of nostalgia. Thunderbirds Are Go Series 2 may well have been a long way away initially, but the news of its production does mean that the reinvention of the show won’t all end with the debut season, which aired on ITV 1 in spring 2015.
Air date
CITV, the children’s broadcasting section of the channel, had put in the commission for the second series all the way back in 2014, before the transmission of the first series. The air date has now been confirmed for October 2016 and with the arrival of the trailer below, anticipation is starting to build for the second series. It will run throughout winter into the first months of 2017, adding another twenty six, thirty-minute episodes to the programming bill, doubling the might of the new show and giving fans a whole lot more action to look forward to.
Story
The stories making up the additional twenty six episodes will return to the themes of the original 1960s show as the five Tracy boys make up the heroic team known as International Rescue, setting out to keep the world safe with more than a little help from Brains, Penelope, Parker and Grandma Tracy. Pitched against their efforts will be the nefarious super-villain, The Mechanic, who replaced The Hood as the main Series 2 antagonist, and he’ll stop at nothing to cause global havoc to satisfy his own agenda. However, from the look of the trailer below, The Hood should still have his part to play in how the next set of adventures play out.
As ever the International Rescue vehicles will be a big part of the action, building on the debut of the show in 2015 with John Tracy’s Exopod space suit. You can see Thunderbirds 1 in the image above, and the heavy-duty air transporter, Thunderbirds 2, the spaceship brilliance that is Thunderbirds 3, the yellow submarine, Thunderbirds 4, and the Earth-orbiting space station, Thunderbirds 5, will all be back in action for the second batch of episodes.
Cast
As with the first series of the Thunderbirds Are Go reboot, Series 2 will also see Rosamund Pike (The World’s End, Gone Girl) taking on the iconic role of Lady Penelope, and David Graham returns to voice her faithful butler Parker once again. Kayvan Novak (Fonejacker) plays Brains, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Love Actually) is Gordon and John Tracy, Rasmus Hardiker (Saxondale) voices Alan and Scott Tracey and David Menkin play Virgil.
Grandma Tracy is voiced by Sandra Dickinson (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and while The Hood isn’t the star of the show this time around, he will have his part to play and Andres Williams (Foyle’s War) will be taking on the challenge of playing second fiddle to The Mechanic.
Production
Thunderbirds Are Go Series 2 will be created by ITV Studios in conjunction with Pukeko Pictures and Weta Workshop, who you’ll probably recognise from their work on The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit and Avatar. It’s being produced by Estelle Hughes, Giles Ridge, Richard Taylor and Andrew Smith, overseen by head writer is Rob Hoegee and directed by David Scott and Theo Baynton.
First impressions
With the arrival of the trailer, we’re pretty positive about the prospect of Thunderbirds Are Go! Series 2. The first series was perfectly crafted with good visuals and with such a great cast and the strength of the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s original creation as inspiration it should be all station go!
