When Calls The Heart Spinoff Sets Spring Return Date — Here's Everything We Know About Season 2 Of When Hope Calls
More than three years after its last original episode, When Hope Calls has finally set its Season 2 premiere date at Great American Family.
The When Calls the Heart spinoff — which originated on Hallmark in 2019 with a 10-episode Season 1, then relocated to GAF in 2021 for a pair of Christmas episodes — will kick off its eight-episode sophomore season Sunday, April 6. (The premiere will stream three days earlier, Thursday, April 3, on Pure Flix.)
The cast, however, is getting something of an overhaul, with three new additions announced ahead of air. When Hope Calls initially followed sisters Lillian Walsh (played by Sullivan's Crossing's Morgan Kohan) and Grace Bennett (Chicago Fire's Jocelyn Hudon) to the town of Brookfield, circa 1916. The series "centered on the town's orphanage and its residents who meet tremendous challenges while creating a hopeful, faith-filled community on the cusp of change in the frontier town," according to the official logline. Ryan-James Hatanaka co-starred as Lillian's love interest, Mountie Gabriel.
In the Season 1 finale, Grace departed for London — and when the series resurfaced on Great American Family in 2021, Hudon did not return. Lillian revealed that her sister had put down roots in the UK; her Season 1 love interest Chuck (played by former series regular Greg Hovanessian) also skipped town.
According to GAF, while the opening episodes of Season 2 will "pay homage to the romance" between Lillian and Gabriel, "new characters are introduced that are seminal to the orphanage and children, the sprawling farms and ranch lands, and to the town of Brookfield." Those include Cindy Busby (Cedar Cove), who has been cast as Nora; Christopher Russell (UnREAL), who will play a new mountie, Michael; and Nick Bateman (A Christmas Miracle With Daisy), who will inhabit the role of Wyatt.
Additionally, Trevor Donovan (90210) will appear in two episodes as Constable Jim Reynolds, "an experienced Mountie based in Clearwater," according to GAF. "A strapping man, proficient in horse riding and physical pursuits, Reynolds is known for his strong presence and skills in the field." He'll first appear in Episode 3, when "Michael (Russell) and Nora (Busby) arrive to pick up a child under his care." Then in a second episode, "Reynolds captures cattle rustlers preying on Brookfield ranches."
Busby, Russell, Bateman and Donovan will be joined by returning cast members Kohan (Lillian), Hatanaka (Gabriel), Wendy Crewson (Tess) and Hanneke Talbot (Maggie). Marshall Williams and Neil Crone — who recurred in Season 1 as handyman Sam and hotel manager Ronnie, respectively — are not mentioned in Season 2's cast list. Neither is Lori Loughlin, who reprised her WCTH role as Abigail Stanton in 2021's Christmas episodes.