{"id":819329,"date":"2026-08-20T00:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819329\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T00:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:42:13","slug":"widows-bay-season-2-ups-jeff-hiller-to-series-regular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819329\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Widow’s Bay’ Season 2 Ups Jeff Hiller To Series Regular"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Widow\u2019s Bay fans can look forward to a lot more laughs (and possibly screams) with Jeff Hiller<\/a> in future, Deadline has learned. Come Season 2, Hiller will make the jump from guest star to series regular on the mega-hit much Emmy-nominated show about a haunted Massachusetts island. <\/p>\n

\n\tHiller, who is repped by Innovative Artists and Odenkirk Provissero Entertainment, met Widow\u2019s Bay creator Katie Dippold<\/a> in an improv group some 25 years ago. He recently told Deadline<\/a> that he\u2019d initially sent in a self-tape without telling his old friend. Then, when he was cast, Dippold had warned him that the only role available was a Town Hall staffer who dies. Later, as her script evolved, she called him and said, \u201cDo you mind if I don\u2019t kill you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the show, Hiller plays Dale, a Town Hall staffer under Matthew Rhys<\/a>\u2018 Mayor Tom Loftis. And in Season 1, Hiller became particularly celebrated for Dale\u2019s iconic scream: \u201cThis place is a death trap! RUN!\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have a shorthand with Katie,\u201d Hiller said, recalling their improv years. \u201cShe liked when I would melt down and scream. The whole team would always make me do these dramatic monologues where I would end up screaming and crying on the ground. It was a funny bit. And when I read that, I was like, \u2018Oh, she wants\u00a0this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Widow's<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJeff Hiller as Dale and Kate O\u2019Flynn as Patricia in \u2018Widow\u2019s Bay\u2019.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApple TV<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Apple TV<\/a> comedy series has garnered a total 19 Emmy nominations, making it the frontrunner of all the new shows this year. And Hiller is Emmy-nominated this year for his guest role of Larry in another Apple TV show, Pluribus <\/a>\u2014 Vince Gilligan\u2019s drama series about a mind-melding pandemic <\/a>starring Rhea Seehorn as its virus-immune lead. Hiller also won an Emmy last year<\/a> for his supporting role of Joel in Somebody, Somewhere.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis past weekend, Hiller told Deadline<\/a> that slipping into improv on Widow\u2019s Bay was \u201cactually very tempting. And I didn\u2019t always succeed. They said, \u2018We\u2019ll cut around that.\u2019\u201d But one bit made the final cut, he revealed. \u201cOne that I think I\u2019m weirdly proud of that literally no one has said that they liked is when Tom is talking and saying, \u2018I don\u2019t think this microphone is on.\u2019 And then I say, \u2018I can hear you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Widow's<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDale Dickey as Rosemary and Jeff Hiller as Dale in \u2018Widow\u2019s Bay\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n\tDippold is currently in the Widow\u2019s Bay Season 2 writers\u2019 room and has yet to reveal exact plans, but Rhys said the Season 1 finale is \u201cthe ultimate setup, I think, for a Season 2. Massive cliffhanger. I\u2019m just talking personally now. A father who now knows the folklore is true. Therefore, if he suddenly leaves the island, his son will die. He realizes he has the Scooby-Doo mission. It\u2019s like, OK, how do we figure this out? What breaks the curse?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show also stars Stephen Root as local fisherman Wyck. As for what he\u2019d like to see in Season 2, Root told us, \u201cI would love to know more about the backstory. What made Wyck Wyck? What kind of scenes did he see when he was a kid or a young man to make him to want to be a protector of the island to get him to the point where he couldn\u2019t stand it anymore and he said, \u2018No, I\u2019m not sitting back anymore. I\u2019m going to tell this mayor that I don\u2019t respect, that I\u2019m going to come out and I\u2019m going to sound the [warning] siren.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Widow's<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDavid Ferino\/ Deadline<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Kate O\u2019Flynn, who has become another fan favorite as Patricia, said, \u201cNext season, I don\u2019t know, but I would love to play a British ancestor of Patricia or something\u2026 I like the idea of wigging up and doing a bit of period drama. Why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWidow\u2019s Bay Emmy nominees include lead actor Rhys, supporting actors Root, O\u2019Flynn and Dale Dickey as Rosemary, and guest stars Hamish Linklater as the island\u2019s ancient founder Richard Warren and Betty Gilpin as Warren\u2019s wife Sarah, alongside celebrated co-stars Kevin Carroll as Sheriff Bechir, K Callan as secretary June and Kingston Rumi Southwick as Loftis\u2019 son Evan.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll episodes of Widow\u2019s Bay Season 1 are streaming on Apple TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Widow\u2019s Bay fans can look forward to a lot more laughs (and possibly screams) with Jeff Hiller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":819330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[5896,88,96361,270294,56601,92,292255],"class_list":["post-819329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-jeff-hiller","tag-katie-dippold","tag-matthew-rhys","tag-tv","tag-widows-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}