‘Sterling Point’ Showrunner Megan Park Officially Addresses Season 2 After That Shocking Season 1 Ending

Image via Prime Video Park talks about the twists of 'Sterling Point,' giving her cast room to find magic, relationship drama, and where it all goes next for Season 2. Published Sep 21, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Editor's note: The following contains major spoilers for Sterling Point. Sterling Point is one of the best new shows this year, and it quickly became a top series on Prime Video after its debut. After a season full of unexpected twists and turns, and a handful of unanswered questions, the good news is that it will be returning for Season 2, with more family drama, more romantic entanglements, and more friendships that you hope will last a lifetime. If you have yet to check it out (I mean, get on it! What are you waiting for?), the first season of the drama follows 17-year-old Annie Jacobson (Ella Rubin) as she leaves her life in New York City behind to understand why she inherited an island in Canada from a grandfather she never knew. While there, she uncovers family secrets she never could have imagined, turning her twin brother (Keen Ruffalo) and their adoptive father’s (Jay Duplass) lives upside down in the process. But that’s not all. While on the island, Annie finds new friends, budding romance with two different guys, and a sister she didn’t know existed. Sure, the love triangle is enticing, as Annie tries to figure out whether her heart lies with Rory (Daniel Quinn-Toye), who she knows from her life in New York, or Ellis (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), an island local who calms her in a way that’s unfamiliar and new. But the real love story is between Annie and her newly discovered sister Ramona (Amélie Hoeferle), who was also blindsided by the revelation, as the two get to know each other and fill in the gaps of their own family mysteries. In this exclusive Collider Signature in-depth conversation, Megan Park, the showrunner of the coming-of-age series about messy first loves, digs into creating the world of Sterling Point and how her own experience as an actress shaped how she wanted to collaborate with her cast. During the interview, she discusses what it was like to bring her younger cast together, the character she was most worried about casting, the atmosphere she wanted to create on set, navigating Annie’s relationships with both Rory and Ellis, and wanting to create a first kiss moment that was as epic as The Notebook. Park also teases her approach to Season 2, whether there will be as many twists, what could be next for the characters, and the movie that she’s focusing on making now. Megan Park Started ‘Sterling Point’ Without Knowing Where the Story Would Lead Her "I just start at page one and I'm like, 'I don't know where this is going. Let's see what happens.'" Image via Prime Video COLLIDER: First of all, I have to tell you that I found everything about this TV series just perfect. I want to live in this town and be friends with all of these people. MEGAN PARK: Yeah, that was the goal. That’s awesome. From the setting and the scenery to the characters and the cast playing them, to the way the story unfolds, this feels like it was made by somebody who is confident in the story that they were telling and the story in the show that they’re making. So, were you? Did you just know exactly what you wanted this to be? PARK: Not at all. I wrote the pilot on my own. I grew up going to Muskoka, so the characters and the world were clear to me. It’s funny, I don’t do an outline and then write it in a format, and all these fancy things. I just start at page one and I’m like, “I don’t know where this is going. Let’s see what happens.” I’ve always been like that. I write my features that way. It drives people nuts, but I don’t know how to work any other way. So truthfully, I knew who these characters were, but I definitely did not know fully where the show was going. I, of course, had some ideas, but that’s where the writers’ room and all these much smarter people in the writers’ room who were far more experienced in making TV came in. Thank God for them because they taught me so much about story and how to unravel it over eight episodes versus a movie and how to thread all these characters’ storylines together and have the propulsion you need to make a show for people to want to click next. So no, I didn’t know. I didn’t know at all. I just knew who these people were and the broad strokes of the themes. But what they did know was the tone of the show. The voice of the show felt very clear to me, and that was my North star. What I felt like I could provide was always knowing what I wanted that to be. But it really, truly takes a lot of people to make a show. Shows like this tend to fall into two categories. There are the shows that feel like TV shows. And then, there are the shows that feel like these are real people and we could show up in this place and these people would all exist there. This show really felt like the latter, from the very beginning, which is not an easy thing to pull off. PARK: Thank you. I love authenticity. That’s always the North star for me with everything. From when you first conceived of this to the season that we’ve gotten to see now, were there any major changes that evolved that you never would have thought of in the earliest days, but now just can’t imagine the show without? PARK: Oh, for sure. Oona, for instance, was written very differently on the page. She wasn’t British. But Bo [Bragason] was somebody that came in and was so special. It was like, “Oh, wow! I have to make a character that’s a little bit different to suit Bo.” Obviously, Bo isn’t exactly Oona, but there’s such a special quality to her that I wanted to infuse into the character. So, that was a really fun change. Also, nobody expected Annie to hook up with Rory in Episode 105. That was a last-minute decision where we were like, “Obviously, her first is going to be Ellis. But, what if? Annie is the type of girl who doesn’t do unexpected things. What if she went a little crazy on her 18th birthday because she hates birthdays and she hates the thought of it. But she had a good time and had fun and did something that was just super messy, as Ramona says, and youthful and doesn’t regret it?” That was something that, in the room, was fun to explore, just her letting loose a little bit. What was it like to cast these characters? When you thought of an actor for a role, or when you saw someone as a particular character, did you just know in every instance? I just can’t imagine anyone else playing these roles. PARK: I know. It’s funny, when you’re working with younger actors or writing a script, sometimes when I’m writing, like for My Old Ass, I’m picturing the Older Ass. You can think of actors that you could see playing the part and imagine that. But when it’s all younger actors, none of them are really well-known and I never really had a picture of any of them in my mind. It was all a surprise. But once I saw each one of their tapes and met with them, it was so instantaneously clear. It wasn’t like, “Oh, we saw 500 tapes for the role of Annie, and we couldn’t decide between the last final five.” We saw 500 tapes for Annie, and as soon as we saw Ella [Rubin], it was only Ella. And we saw 500 tapes for Ramona, and it was only ever Amélie [Hoeferle]. That’s always been the same for me. It was the same for My Old Ass. I saw so many tapes for Elliot, and then I saw Maisy [Stella] and that was it. So yes, these people were the people as soon as we saw them. Amélie’s tape was the first tape I saw of any character and I was like, “Wait, there’s Ramona.” And then, I was like, “Maybe I’m just excited. It’s the first tape in.” And then, I watched every other tape and I was like, “No. Damn. First tape, and there she is.” And we cast her. That was an easy one. They’re just so talented, this group of young actors. It’s insane. Were there any characters that you were worried about casting? PARK: Ellis was really hard to find. Ellis was the last character we cast. Jacob [Whiteduck-Lavoie] hadn’t taped in the original couple of rounds, so I hadn’t seen him. And Ellis is hard because you like him, but he’s got this specific quiet Canadian boy essence. It was really hard. And then, I saw Jacob’s tape two days before the last day of chemistry reads and I was like, “Wait, there’s something about this kid. I think he’s the one.” And so, we flew him to Toronto to read with Ella. He came in, and the second he walked in the door and said the first line, I remember leaning over and writing on the casting director’s paper, “This is him.” But I was getting nervous because I’ve actually never been in a situation where I had to hire somebody I wasn’t 100% sure of. I’ve always just been like, “There’s Ella. There’s Amélie. There’s Bo. These are our actors. And then, with Ellis, I was like, “What if I actually have to hire somebody that I’m unsure of in my gut?” And then, we found Jacob, and the rest is history. I was like, “There he is.” Because it’s a character that not only has to be what you want him to embody, but he also has to balance with Rory. PARK: When we cast Daniel Quinn Toye, who is this amazing Scottish actor, first, we were like, “How are we going to find somebody? Everyone’s going to be Team Rory. We need to find somebody who can rival him because he’s such a charismatic, amazing young man.” And then, we found Ellis and we were like, “Okay, cool.” Was Connor always meant to be such a funny character? Did that develop out of how Keen Ruffalo embodied the character, or was that just always how you saw him? PARK: Every actor definitely brings the character alive and adds something special to it. That’s always what’s so fun about it. But I will say that yes, Connor was always meant to be very funny. I don’t want to speak for the other writers of the show, but I feel like everybody really enjoyed writing the Connor character a lot. It was fun to push that to its limit. We all really enjoyed that in the room. That’s what’s so great about Keen. That character could have gone the other way and ended up being really unlikable, but Keen is so inherently likable and talented. And his improv was great. He’s amazing. Park Wanted To Give Her Young Cast Everything She Didn’t Have on Set as an Actress "I feel very protective of all actors, but especially young actors ... and I wanted to create an atmosphere on set where they felt a lot of autonomy ... but also had creative input in things." Image via Prime Video I first became aware of you as an actor in The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which is an ensemble that had a bunch of younger actors. Because you do have a younger ensemble in this show, how did you approach working with this cast, as a director and as a showrunner, in a way that you wish you would have had when you were working? What did you want to give them that you wish you had then? PARK: I wanted to give them everything I didn’t have. I definitely didn’t have any experiences like this when I was younger, or at the time, it did not feel that way. First, I really obviously relate to actors because I was one for so many years. It is really vulnerable and hard, especially being a younger actor. I was acting professionally at 16, 17, 18, even younger than these actors. I remember it well, so I have a lot of empathy for them. I feel very protective of all actors, but especially young actors being in that situation, and I wanted to create an atmosphere on set where they felt a lot of autonomy to have an opinion and be heard and be able to say not only how they felt as people but also had creative input in things. I’m a big believer that hierarchy is bullshit on a set. Everybody should be treated equally, and that’s definitely not always the case on sets. I really try to run an ego-less vibe on a set and just make it really safe and free and fun, creatively. They were such a wonderful, kind group of young people that treated each other with so much respect. That’s also what made the performances so amazing. They were so kind and created such great chemistry with each other on such a professional level. I think about that scene with Bo and Amélie in Episode 108, which I directed – the breakup scene – and it was just like watching the most amazing tennis match, them acting in that scene. We had two cameras so they could just flow. They built such a rapport and a trust in each other that they could really just try things and be in the moment. It was really beautiful to watch. I try to just create an atmosphere like that and then support them as much as I possibly can. I love the romance in this series and how it plays out over the season. I also love that Ellis and Rory are both good guys who care about Annie. Was that something that was really important to you, that you make that not just a difficult choice for her, but for the audience? PARK: That was so intentional in the room. We didn’t want one of them to be the obvious bad guy. It represented two different versions of Annie, and she’s not really sure where she’s at. She’s right in the middle. It’s two lifestyle choices that her mom was grappling between. She had this life that she built in New York with a husband and a community, and Steven is not a bad guy. I hope that audiences understood the position Steven was in. It’s hard because his ex-wife passed away and I think he doesn’t want to speak ill of her to his children. There’s so much there under the surface. Jay Duplass is such a genius with what he brought to that role. But for Annie, she’s also subconsciously thinking, “Wait, my mom made this choice, and it worked for a second. But then, she came back to this Ellis choice.” So, I think part of her decision might have been a little bit influenced by trying to live out the experiment her mom maybe never got the chance to. But also, Ellis is really refreshing to her in a way that he quiets her mind. He’s a very Canadian boy. He’s not Rory. He’s not necessarily talking about his emotions in that way, but he certainly quiets her in a way that’s really beautiful. Do you think Annie and Rory ever would have happened if Ellis had just stepped up sooner, at any point? PARK: What I think is really beautiful, especially about them hooking up in Episode105 is that she does feel really safe with Rory. I think she knows that she has really, really deep feelings for Ellis, but Rory is very kind and safe and empathetic. They relate on a lot of levels, in terms of their lives and where they come from and their anxieties and the pressure they put on themselves. I think she actually felt comfortable enough to explore a side of herself with Rory because of how great he is. But I think it had to happen in the way that it happened. I think she had to like to go there with Rory in order to feel ready to go there with Ellis, if that makes sense. She does start out as a girl with a gay boyfriend, and she’s aware that he’s gay. She’s trying to do the right thing. She doesn’t want to break up with him until he’s ready to come out. I haven’t actually heard anybody talk about this, but I think it’s in Episode 104, she has a conversation with Ramona where she’s like, “I actually low-key thought I was asexual until I got here.” She just has not been in that headspace, and I think that really is true. So, all of a sudden, she’s like, “Wait, there’s two guys that I’m into. This is so crazy and so overwhelming.” So, I think it had to happen the way that it happened. Sometimes I watch these shows and people are so young and in these super serious relationships. Annie is 18, and she’s just feeling this for the first time. I think that’s happening at an older and older age. I feel like my parents’ generation, they were all in serious relationships when they were 16 and that was just normal. As a millennial, it’s not even cool to date in high school. You wait until you’re in college. Park Knew How Magical Annie and Ellis’ First Kiss Was From the Moment They Shot That Scene in ‘Sterling Point’ "If this doesn't win MTV's Kiss of the Year, we're quitting." Image via Prime Video Ella Rubin has talked about how that moment when Ellis pulls Annie across the floor in the closet came up on the day you shot that. What was it like to see that all come together in the moment, for the first time? Did you know that it would be such a big thing and that fans would respond the way that they have? PARK: Truthfully, yes. We didn’t know how the blocking was going to work. It was another director’s episode, Andrew Ahn, who’s amazing, and they were blocking it out. And then, our DP, K2, who was shooting, was like, “I think the pull should go like this.” We were trying it, and she was like, “Megan, sit down.” And so, her and I ended up sitting down in this closet, and Ella and Jacob were watching, and then she just grabbed me and pulled me. As soon as she did it, everyone was like, “Ooh, okay. That was hot. That works.” They hadn’t had a kissing scene. That was the first kissing scene they did because we did things out of order. I remember that they did it, and you just never know how that chemistry is going to be. And I’ve got to say, that chin tilt is getting a lot of attention, but that was all Jacob. Nobody told him to do that. He did it and we were at the monitors, and we were like, “Woah, they have chemistry.” And I looked over at Chrystal [Lotz] and Skye [Tostowaryk], our hair and makeup department heads, who were at their monitors totally gasping. And I was like, “Okay, I think this is working.” And then, we joked, “If this doesn’t win MTV’s Kiss of the Year, we’re quitting.” I don’t even know if that’s still a thing. I don’t know if it is either, but if it’s not, they should bring it back, just to give the show that award. PARK: We were trying to make it as epic as The Notebook and hopefully it succeeds. They killed it. Everything just had to come together perfectly in that moment for it to work the way it did. PARK: He did the chin tilt on the first take, and then in the second take, he didn’t. I don’t even know if he realized it. We were like, “Do the chin tilt.” And he was like, “Okay. I didn’t know.” But the hug was also so sweet. They’re both just such talented actors. They had that real safety and trust with each other, which I think allows for those beautiful moments to happen. That’s collaboration. The magic happens when everyone is like, “Let’s come together and use our brains.” Because you keep having these different reveals and twists throughout the season, were there any that you were worried or nervous about audience reaction to? Did it feel like the reactions you got from your own cast were good predictors for how audience might react? PARK: The cast didn’t know where it was going either because they signed on when we only had some of the episodes written. I was always really nervous to hear their reactions because I also cared a lot about their opinions and they were obviously very invested in their characters, so it was always a good litmus test. I was terrified for the whole thing to come out. You’re on an island, so to speak, while you’re making a show like this, and you have no idea if it’s going to translate. You just have to try not to think about audiences. You want to think about what people are going to think, but you can’t think too much about it, otherwise you get too nervous and too freaked out and you can’t do it. You get stage fright. I didn’t know if any of it was going to hit with people. That’s why it’s been so astounding to see. I love Gen-Z so much for the fact that they’re calling out these specific moments that were so special to me and so important to me – these quiet, naturalistic moments that made it into the cuts and that we really tried so hard to ground in reality. I’m not even on social media, but people have been sending me the best of the best, and to see that called out is so satisfying. It’s so great to hear the response, but from the actual people that we made it for, for these young fans, to be like, “Oh, wow, I really appreciate that. It makes me feel so seen,” is the best feeling. There is such beauty and magic to this show, because of the location and how it all came together. Do you worry about facing the blank page and doing it all again for another season, or do you have a clear sense of Season 2 and even ideas for what happens beyond that? PARK: You have to think about Season 2 as you’re creating Season 1 because you want to plant the seeds and set up the ending to hopefully have that. We did talk a lot about blue sky things of where we’d want to go and what new characters we’d want to introduce. It doesn’t seem daunting to go back there. If anything, it’s exciting to set the bar even higher. Knowing how much people appreciated what we were trying to do, I think we could push it even further. I hope that we’ve earned enough of people’s trust and respect. To try to top it, to me, is always a fun challenge. I’m in the process of prep on my movie that I’m shooting this fall, and it’s nice to have something to distract me right now. Park Was Nervous About Landing the Plane With the ‘Sterling Point’ Season Finale "There's so much to tie up and there's so much to leave hanging." Image via Prime Video We get answers over the season, but you definitely leave some big unanswered questions at the end. Did you spend a lot of time thinking about what you wanted to answer and how much you wanted to set up, especially without knowing whether you would get to continue telling the story? PARK: Yeah. I feel like Episode 8 was the big one where we were like, “Can we land the plane?” There’s so much to tie up and there’s so much to leave hanging. Episodes 1 and 2 really feel like a two-part pilot to me. When I wrote those two, I realized how much setup and how much world building I had to do in those two episodes. And then, you got to ease into the fun from Episodes 3 to 7. And then, with Episode 8, you’re like, “Oh, fuck.” I also co-wrote that one, so I was like, “Now, I’ve got to land the plane.” And that was another one that I directed. It felt like there was a lot of pressure and a lot of eyeballs on Episode 8. A lot of stuff got cut and moved around in that episode. It was really like putting the puzzle back together at the end and choosing which pieces to leave missing. So much of the show, truthfully, is made in the edit. You look at what you have and what’s working and where you want to leave things, and you experiment with different endings and different moods of endings. We had a lot to play with. We shot a lot of levels. But it was scary. We sent the cut in, and then it was great to get the call, and I think the literal words they used were, “You landed the plane.” It was that fine line of, you don’t want to leave it, if there isn’t a Season 2, in a place where people are going to be like, “Fuck, man, you left way too many unanswered questions.” But you want there to be enough excitement that people hopefully want to see more. Why do you think Connor makes the decision to search for his and Annie’s biological parents, but not tell her about it? Where had he gotten by the end of the season that led him to make both of those decisions? PARK: Connor is a character where I just feel like there’s so much nuance there and he’ll be fun to spend more time with, in Season 2. His reveal in Episode 105, where he talks about how he got into an amazing summer program, but he couldn’t tell Annie about it because she’s the only smart one in the family. That’s her role, which I think is so true of roles that we take on, in systems and families. It’s really hard to break out of that sometimes. And so, for Connor, his arc is so much about coming out from under the thumb of Annie a little bit. Just like Annie is trying to figure out what answers she needs to feel some sense of closure and understand who she is and where she comes from, Connor has a different perspective on that and has a different path of what he feels that he wants. He just doesn’t want to put up with the confrontation with Annie. In a way, he’s a little bit of a shit disturber, but also a little bit of a peacemaker. He picks and chooses. But I think this is the first time he’s like, “You know what? You’re doing what you need to do. I told you that I didn’t care about uncovering this stuff. These are not the things I need to know. But I want to know this other part of it. Now, we’re adults, so I have the right to do the same thing that you’re doing.” I think that is a really valid and bold choice. I think he had to do it without telling Annie because Annie would have literally taken his phone and thrown it into the lake. The thing that I love the most about this season was the love story between Annie and Ramona. It’s just so great to watch them come together, especially from where they start. So, with Annie staying in Sterling Point and Ramona going to New York City, would you just find a way to get them back in the same place as soon as possible because it feels like you can’t keep them apart for too long? PARK: I think you’d really want to see where they’re at in their separate worlds for a second, for sure. It will be so fun to see Ramona in New York and how that’s affected her, and if she likes or doesn’t like it. But then, of course, you’d want to bring them back together. When Ramona turns 18, she has a lot more autonomy over what happens with the island and her decision, so has her POV changed after being in New York for the year? But I think that you’d want to have the gang all back together for the summer, for sure. I think you also want to get a little bit of a feeling of what their lives have been like the last year. That relationship was just so special to watch. PARK: That’s the love story of the show. It was so Parent Trap-y, where you know the journey you’re going to go on, but they just played it so beautifully. They just became like actual sisters in real life. It was so cute to watch. They’re so close. They were always touching each other’s hair and braiding each other’s hair, and they had all these cute little handshakes and things that they would do. It was just really sweet to watch that relationship form. And talk about building that trust, so that they could really go there in scenes. They were great. It was so beautiful to watch. While 'Sterling Point' Season 2 Might Not Have As Many Twists, It Will Dig Deeper Into the Character Relationships and Romances "Now that you know the characters and the world and you’re invested, you can spend less time setting stuff up and just dive right into the juicy shit right away." Does it feel like Season 2 also has to be less twisty and more about seeing what’s next for these characters? What are the biggest questions about what comes next that you're most excited to explore? PARK: You can dig deeper into the romances. Ramona and Oona had this massive breakup. Everyone loves Ramoona and would want to know if they’re going to find their way back to each other. I think the same thing with Ellis and Annie. I’ve always wanted to explore, “Wait, did Ellis ever have an ex?” We don’t really know that. He’s so quiet and stoic but is there somebody from his past that comes forward that we don’t know about? I think the parents have a lot of explaining to do. Where is Oona’s mom? I think we want to meet her and understand her a little bit more. Annie has now gotten further into the experiment than her mom ever did, so what is she going to do? Is she going to stay there forever and live on an island? How sustainable is that? Is everything she’s ever wanted going to shift? Probably not. So, there’s some conflict there, in terms of figuring out how her and Ellis can stand in line. There’s also a lot with this new layer of grief and womanhood. You can just age everything up a little bit in a more interesting and higher-stakes way. There’s a lot there, especially if a year has passed. We’ve also talked about, did Oona have a love interest from the past, from that time Ramona was gone? Now that you know the characters and the world and you’re invested, you can spend less time setting stuff up and just dive right into the juicy shit right away. You talked about prepping your next movie and focusing on that right now. How different is that? What are you getting to explore with that, that you are excited about? PARK: It’s totally different, which is what’s great about it. There are no young people in it. It’s about people close to my age. They’re all in their 30s and 40s, and it’s very much about motherhood and female friendship and marriage and divorce, and all those kinds of things. It’s a lot more to where I’m at in my life, with aging parents and where I feel like my peers are at. It’s really exciting to me to tackle that. I think what’s similar about it is the tone, in the sense that even though it’s not YA, there’s an authenticity to it. It’s Big Daddy meets Stepmom, but with a really contemporary feel. Hopefully, people feel like it still has the drama and the comedy and the heartfelt nature that the show has, which is what I’m always striving to mix together. But it’s definitely different. And what is that project called? PARK: Zoë Kravitz is starring in it. I’m doing it with Apple and LuckyChap. It’s called Die Alive. We’re shooting it in New York this fall. Sterling Point is available to stream on Prime Video.​​​​​​ Release Date August 5, 2026 Network Prime Video Directors Aurora Guerrero, Megan Park, Andrew Ahn Writers Megan Park, Jared Frieder, Raffi Donatich, Warren Hsu Leonard, Erica Lipez Cast Amélie Hoeferle, Ella Rubin, Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie, Nikko Angelo Hinayo, Keen Ruffalo, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Bo Bragason, Jay Duplass, Missi Pyle, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Katie Douglas, Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Luke Avoledo, Jason Sakaki Creator(s) Megan Park Seasons 1