‘The Game’ Season 2: Analisa Velez and Toby Sandeman Detail New Season’s ‘Crazy Ride’ (Exclusive)

The Game returned to television last year, and the focus is on nearly an entirely new set of characters. Analisa Velez and Toby Sandeman are two cast members who are new to The Game universe, playing the roles of Raquel Navarro and Garrett Evans, respectively, and viewers saw their relationship grow at the end of Season 1. PopCulture.com spoke to Velez and Sandeman ahead of the Season 2 premiere on Paramount+, and they described how the new season stands out from Season 1. 

“Gosh, it’s like a rollercoaster, like you are going to be on a crazy ride and you’re going to be excited, and then you’re going to be sad and you’re going to be happy and then you’re like, ah, it’s great,” Velez exclusively told PopCulture. Sandeman says Season 2 will take a deep dive into each of the main characters. 

“I think we start to get really in-depth with the characters, especially with mine and also I would say Annalisa’s as well,” Sandeman said. “We start to see where they come from and their backgrounds and things start to come out from the crevices and the cracks.”

Raquel has a passion for music and is on the verge is doing something big in the industry. When talking about Raquel’s journey in Season 2, Velez said, “Yeah, you should expect to see the journey of it, which to me is actually the most exciting part. So you’re going to see the highs and the lows, yeah.” 

Garrett is one of the best players in professional football and is looking to get a big contract. In Season 2, viewers will see that there’s a lot more to Garrett than what he portrays. “The picturesque that Garrett puts on isn’t all there and that there’s cracks in that. And we start to see that as we all do, we have tough times with our families and we have rifts, and then there’s a lot of resentment there. So I think that those sorts of feelings come up, but also how he tries to navigate that with his ‘new family,’  whether that’s football or whether that’s a special somebody else.”

The Game is a revival series based on the show that aired on The CW and BET from 2006-2015. Velez and Sandeman never appeared in the original version but loved how supportive two of the original cast members have been. “Hosea [Chanchez] and Wendy Raquel Robinson have been so welcoming, and bringing us into the family and that’s needed,” Sandeman said. “And it’s great that we had that support system coming into it. And then we just tried to bring the best that we could. I tried to bring the best that I could to the show and to build off that classic legacy that was The Game.”

“It was amazing for me, just because a lot of the people on the show have already been on shows for a very long time, and I just learned from everybody and everybody was so willing to just drop gems with me whenever they could,” Velez added. “And me, I’m like a sponge, so I was just like, ‘Okay, and then what I should do, and then?’ So it was exciting to see everybody just come together, and I don’t know the growth between the last season and this season.” The Game Season 2 is now streaming on Paramount+.