‘Outer Banks’ Cast Opens Up About Love Triangles, Personal Growth and Season 3’s “New Shades”

[This story contains spoilers for Netflix’s Outer Banks season two.]

After wrapping up its second season with the reemergence of not one but two familiar faces previously presumed dead, it seems hard to believe that Outer Banks can possibly finding a way to keep outdoing itself. And yet, it’s safe to say that the teen drama about a tight-knit group of treasure hunters known as the Pogues will still manage to do just that.

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The cast of the Netflix series recently received the Rising Star Award at Sun Valley Film Festival in Ketchum, Idaho. During a panel moderated by The Hollywood Reporter, the show’s cast took a break from filming season three in Barbados to discuss how their characters evolved last season and tease what’s to come in the series that was created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke. Participating in the conversation were stars Madelyn Cline (Sarah), Rudy Pankow (JJ), Jonathan Daviss (Pope), Drew Starkey (Rafe), Austin North (Topper) and Carlacia Grant (Cleo).

“I’ve really enjoyed Sarah’s journey quite a bit with her family and just her own personal development,” Cline shared of her character. “That’s something that I owe greatly to Josh, Jennifer, Shannon, for allowing me to kind of put my mark on it and open up to them about the journeys that I went on as a teenager and learning how to put your foot down. But I’ve really enjoyed working quite a bit with Drew and Chip [Estes]. The family dynamic is so interesting and very, very deep and heavy. That’s always really exciting for me because it challenges me, and it pushes me as an actor, and then I get to go and work with the Pogues, and that’s always just a breath of fresh air.”

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Indeed, Sarah has dealt with a lot over the past two seasons, culminating in the most recent finale, which saw Chip Estes return as her father, Ward Cameron, who appeared to perish earlier in season two. She and John B (Chase Stokes, who had to miss the panel due to a last-minute scheduling change) decided to spare Ward’s life, although the episode’s conclusion hinted at Rafe vowing to Ward that things won’t be easy for Sarah and John B. After that, John B’s father, Big John (Charles Halford), was revealed to be alive and well despite appearing to have been found dead in the first season.

“As actors, you always have crazy motivations in your head for the choices that your character makes and why they do what they do, and season two has been an opportunity to explore those more in-depth,” Starkey said. “As we’ve worked with the characters, and Josh and Jonas and Shannon have written them, it’s cool to see how we we’ve also put our mark on them and influenced them. It’s pretty unpredictable at this point, which is exciting.”

North, whose Topper is a romantic rival to John B for Sarah’s affections, is grateful that his character was able to become a bit more nuanced in the most recent season. “We see the development of Topper and Sarah’s relationship and why he is the way he is,” North said. “Those sides of him came out where it was a deep love for Sarah. Second season was fun just to see that development, and Topper was a little more humanized.”

It’s fitting for recipients of the Rising Star Award to have a number of projects on their plates, which includes Cline having recently filmed a role in the upcoming sequel to Knives Out. “Every production, every set, every project is different,” she said. “When I’m shooting on Outer Banks, I do feel like I’m coming home a bit because I know everybody. I’m familiar. Going and doing another project is intimidating because I feel like a bit of a fish out of water.”

She continued, “For me, I went on to Knives Out, and I felt a little bit awkward. I was like, ‘Oh, I haven’t done this in a few years.’ But it was still a joy, and it’s so much fun. I do love the feeling of being displaced a little bit and a little unaccounted for, and off doing something else here and then going over here; I love that kind of lifestyle. But both productions are wonderful, and I have had a blast on both, but I just don’t think you can compare them.”

Pankow similarly used his downtime from the show to film his role in the recently released theatrical hit Uncharted as Sam Drake, brother to Tom Holland‘s Nathan Drake. “Every set has a different energy, and adapting to that is also part of our job,” Pankow said. “The Uncharted set was high-energy again, but there’s all these other little nuances that are different — different eyes, different ways to think about how to shoot something, and it’s all just something I have to get used to on each set.”

Speaking of Holland, fans of Euphoria took to social media before the HBO series’ recently aired season two finale to express their hopes that the Spider-Man star, who is dating Euphoria’s Zendaya, might pop up in the episode. (Alas, no such luck.) Could Outer Banks fans potentially see Holland appear in support of the Pogues one of these days? It doesn’t sound like viewers should be holding their collective breath, although Daviss quipped, “If it was up to us, Tom would be in our season finale.”

Daviss also expressed his appreciation for getting to play a character he didn’t see on TV while growing up. “My favorite part of playing Pope is just being able to be the character I wish I could have seen on TV when I was young,” the actor said. “Just being able to be a representative, to show the experiences that I know a lot of young 16-year-olds who look like me have and to be able to play that honestly. And even in season two, there were a lot of personal things that made their way into the story with me, and being able to play those moments very honestly was a great experience for me.”

Undeniably, a key draw for fans are the romantic relationships, not only the drama with Sarah and her two interested suitors, John B and Topper, but also the hints at connections between JJ and Kiara (Madison Bailey), and Pope and Cleo.

“As someone who consumes TV and movies, I love the will-they-won’t-they,” Cline admitted. “I love that build-up to a relationship. I’m a sucker for a love triangle, and I genuinely love [Topper’s] arc, how you kind of redeemed yourself, and you come around, and Sarah’s like, ‘What do I do? I’m a horrible person.’ And then, obviously, her relationship with John B is so special and beautiful — that first true love is really wonderful. I also enjoy watching the pieces of some of the other relationships, and sometimes some relationships don’t work out. That’s very human — that’s just life, honestly. I enjoy watching that, and I love seeing it in the script. It’s a real page-turner for me. I love the drama.”

Grant, who discussed working as a driver for Uber and DoorDash before landing her role as Cleo for season two, recalled being part of the “crazy” ride as a newcomer to the cast. “Honestly, I had a luxury of when we were filming season two, nobody knew who I was,” she said. “So I had the luxury of trotting around with everyone and just being in the corner and watching to see what would happen. It’s always really overwhelming when it happens, but it’s a great ride. And I call them all the time for advice. So that’s the cool part of being a freshman hanging around all the sophomores.”

As for what fans can expect in season three, Cline teases, “I think it’s adrenaline. It’s gonna be as exciting as ever.” And Pankow concurs but sees some noteworthy evolution happening as well: “There is the same kind of feeling, where it’s gonna be high-adrenaline, high-octane — but new shades.”

This year’s Sun Valley Film Festival opened with National Geographic Documentary Films’ Fire of Love and drama Across the River and Into the Trees, based on the Ernest Hemingway novel and featuring star Liev Schreiber in attendance. The festival, which closed with the CNN/HBOMax documentary Navalny, also screened National Geographic Documentary Films’ The Territory, We Feed People and Disney-branded doc Mija. Woody Harrelson and Amy Poehler earned the Vision Award, Danny Strong picked up the Pioneer Award and Dr. Nathalie Dougé collected National Geographic’s Further Award.

At the festival, Linoleum won best narrative feature film, and Mama Bears prevailed as best documentary feature. Narrative film Karmalink and documentary Sirens picked up the One in A Million Awards for features made for under a million dollars, while director Ron Howard’s We Feed the People scored the audience award.

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