Netflix's 6-Episode Crime Series With Hulk Star Is So Good, It's Getting A Surprise Season 2

Published Jul 22, 2026, 1:58 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Although Sam Neill’s final show was originally intended to be a standalone story, the Netflix series recently received a second season renewal thanks to the popularity of Hulk star Eric Bana’s murder mystery. It is fair to say that the murder mystery format is back in a big way, and not just in the form of major box office hits like Scream 7. In recent years, light-hearted murder mystery shows like Peacock’s Poker Face, Apple TV’s The Afterparty, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, and Netflix’s The Residence have all brought back the format. The late, great Sam Neill was no stranger to the genre, appearing in 2015’s underrated Agatha Christie adaptation And Then There Were None as well as the cult classic 1990 psychological thriller movie Dead Calm. More recently, Neill’s final small-screen role came in a Netflix murder mystery that was intended to be a limited series, but which is now getting a second season thanks to its popularity with viewers. The same fate befell Stranger Things years earlier, with the show ballooning from a self-contained one-season miniseries into a sprawling media franchise in the years after its season 2 renewal. Neill’s final role came in 2025’s Untamed, a murder mystery set in the vast wilderness of Yosemite National Park. When an unidentified woman’s body is found near the famous rock formation El Capitan, it is up to Eric Bana’s troubled National Park Service Investigative Services Branch agent Kyle Turner to get to the bottom of this grim discovery. Untamed Is Notable For Being Sam Neill's Final TV Role Neill plays Kyle's mentor, Paul, who is Yosemite’s chief park ranger. The cast of Untamed is rounded out by Rosemarie DeWitt as Kyle’s ex-wife, Lily Santiago as the rookie ranger assisting the murder investigation, and Wilson Bethel as the park’s wildlife management officer. Untamed’s twisty story ends up shedding light on its entire ensemble, but it is Kyle’s grief over losing a child years earlier that shapes his character arc. Neill’s Paul plays a major part in Kyle’s arc, and the actor infuses the character with both rugged charm and enough menace to make him one of many suspects in the show’s central mystery. Like many of Neill’s best performances, from Jurassic Park to Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Untamed makes the most of the actor’s charisma, creating a character who may be read as a well-meaning curmudgeon or a genuinely nasty piece of work depending on the scene. Since Untamed season 1’s ending wraps up the murder mystery story perfectly, it is tough to tell where the series will head in its second outing. However, this is not unusual for Netflix’s psychological thrillers, and has, in fact, become something of a routine with the streaming service’s entries into the genre. From the Caroline Kepnes adaptation You to 2025’s campy The Hunting Wives, Netflix has a tendency to expand self-contained psychological thriller shows with unexpected renewals. Kyle may need to solve a murder mystery in season 2, meaning the show could follow the Dark Winds blueprint with its troubled antihero unearthing a new conspiracy with each new season. Alternatively, season 2 could expand on season 1’s existing story, making Untamed a more immersive brand of mystery by re-litigating the twisty surprises of season 1’s finale with new evidence. Whatever path Untamed season 2 takes, the Netflix show’s second season renewal is a fitting tribute to the popularity of Neill’s final show. Throughout his career, the screen veteran brought intensity and charm in equal measure to everything from family movies to dark psychological dramas. As such, it is fitting that Sam Neill’s final show was popular enough to earn Untamed a second season on Netflix. Release Date 2025 - 2025-00-00 Network Netflix Directors Nick Murphy Creator(s) Mark L. Smith, Elle Smith