Some fans are pros at creating a fantasy league for their favorite sport, but what if your favorite sport is sitting down on your couch and letting the greatest talents of your time entertain you on the small screen? Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne’s homicidal, funky love child, Poker Face, employs a ridiculous boatload of those talents, and, lucky for spectators everywhere, the show is sailing back for season 2. Poker Face (or Murder She Wrote on acid, as I fondly call it), like many prestige procedural hybrids before it, showed off a call sheet of icons in season 1 that was always going to be nearly impossible to top.
Chole Sevigny, Stephanie Hsu, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tim Meadows, to name drop a few. And yet the most ambitious casting team in the biz, apparently, saw all the greats who once chopped it up on set with Angela Lansbury and said, hold my beer. So, who is Charlie Cale going to unintentionally unravel now that she’s on the run from a girl boss with hired guns? No bullshit: there are some wild A-list celebrity cameos in Poker Face season 2.
What happened at the end of Poker Face season 1?
At the end of the season, Charlie gets framed for one last murder: Sterling Frost Sr. (played by Ron Perlman). Benjamin Bratt (who is aging so hot it’s probably illegal) kills his boss, Sterling, on behalf of the lady mob boss (Beatrix Hasp, voiced by Rhea Perlman), who is trying to control the other five mob families. After Charlie exposes Benjamin Bratt’s hitman plot, Beatrix declares that all five families have a target on her back for causing chaos.
Poker Face Season 2 Theories
That means we should be in for a treat by the end of season 2: a showdown between Charlie and Beatrix. The now deceased (RIP) Sterling offered the carrot, which means Beatrix is destined to offer the stick, right? If I had to predict/craft the season’s big diabolical twist myself, I’d say Beatrix will kidnap Charlie’s niece, and the Cale sisters (including Clea Duvall) will have to save her in one very traumatic family therapy session to bring them back together. Rian, am I close?
Poker Face Season 2 Guest Stars
Cynthia Erivo
Cynthia is tapping into her Sinners energy by playing multiple siblings during the season premiere of Poker Face.
Katie Holmes
In the second episode, the Peacock original is gifting us a Katie fucking Holmes comeback. You’re kidding, right? Katie plays a character named Greta Finch.
B.J. Novak
Honestly, it’s about time B.J. got back on screen and charmed us again! His last movie, Vengeance, was criminally underrated.
John Mulaney
The nerdiest bad boy in Hollywood is teed up to make us laugh in episode 3. Why do I have a feeling John would make a killer villain? Like when Robin Williams went spooky scary for SVU.
Justin Theroux
Jennifer Aniston’s best ex has been clocking in lately, including starring as the problem child millionaire in Running Point, and, damn, it’s so good when he’s bad.
Giancarlo Esposito
Considering there’s never been a disappointing Giancarlo performance, I’m already sat. He’s playing Fred Finch, a relative of Katie Holmes’ character.
Haley Joel Osment
Haley is going to expand his adult acting career in episode 11, titled “Day of the Iguana.” The episode seems to involve a wedding and also features Orange Is The New Black star Taylor Schilling and Justin Theroux.
Patti Harrison
Patti is appearing in the two (!!) penultimate episodes of the season as a character named Alex.
Awkwafina
Awkafina, who recently appeared in a buzzworthy Black Mirror episode (and has the ability to go by the name Nora Lum anytime she wants, BTW), is starring in an episode alongside the incredible Alia Shawkat.
Carol Kane
She is absolutely going to freak this, there’s no other way to say it.
Melanie Lynskey & Jason Ritter
My favorite low-key it couple is guest-starring in season 2, so I can only hope they’re in the same episode playing enemies.
Method Man
I feel like the cardinal rule “Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with” will also apply in this fictional universe.