Fox Renews Popular Summer Drama for Season 2, Delivering Holiday Special Soon

Fantasy Island is returning for Season 2. Deadline reports that the popular summer drama has been given the green light for another season with Fox. The renewal comes amid string season for the modernized version of the original, which ran from 1977-1984. The summer 2021 reboot stars Roselyn Sanchez and Kiara Barnes. Its debut season was ranked as the No. 1 new scripted program among adults 18-49. Fantasy Island also became Fox’s most-streamed new drama series since 9-1-1: Lone Star.

The show’s setting is at a luxury resort, where any fantasy guests’ requests are fulfilled. The turnout is never what the guest expects. Each episode chronicles is emotional and provocative, featuring stories about people who arrive with specific dreams and desires.

Sanchez plays Elena Roarke, a descendant of the “iconic Mr. Roarke, who set aside her own ambitions, and the love of her life, to uphold her family’s legacy,” per Deadline’s description. Barnes stars as Ruby Akuda, “a young woman with an old soul who arrived on Fantasy Island with a terminal illness and was given a new lease on life as Roarke’s right hand.”

Luckily, fans of the show won’t have to wait nearly a year for updates. Fox is airing a two-hour holiday episode, Welcome to the Snow Globe, which will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 21. Lindsay Craft, Eddie Cahill and Mackenzie Astin will be guest stars in the episode. 

The episode will follow “a businesswoman’s (Craft) fantasy of a perfect Christmas and meeting “Mr. Right” (Cahill) tests Roarke in unexpected ways. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones (Astin) faces his past, while a new Secret Santa tradition has Ruby and Javier (John Gabriel Rodriguez) looking to the future,” the report notes.

In September, Michael Thorn, Fox Entertainment President spoke highly of the show, calling it the “first real, recent attempt at a cost effective” drama series. “We’re really high on it, and it’s been exciting for us to cross-pollinate some of the stars that we have in other series and do other exciting turns on Fantasy Island,” he said at the time. “We definitely see a potential second season and it’s something that we’re talking about now. We’re very pleased with the show and Liz and Sarah did a very good job,” he said at the time.

Of the upcoming second season, Thorn said: “Thanks to the fantastic Roselyn Sanchez and charming Kiara Barnes and the captivating stories that tapped into the core tenets of emotion and aspiration, Fantasy Island was the perfect wish fulfillment and escape we all needed this summer. Liz Craft, Sarah Fain and everyone at Sony and Gemstone did an excellent job on this series and, like all good things, it left us wanting more. We’re so happy to have Elena Roarke, Ruby Akuda and everyone on Fantasy Island open their world again for a brief visit this winter and for a longer stay next year.”