Matthew Rhys is heading back into the courtroom. The Emmy-winning actor, best known for The Americans and HBO’s Perry Mason, has been cast as one of the leads in Season 2 of Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent. He’ll star alongside Rachel Brosnahan and Jack Reynor in the next chapter of the hit legal thriller.
The second season takes inspiration from Dissection of a Murder, the debut legal thriller novel by Jo Murray. This time, the story follows an ambitious defense attorney (Brosnahan) who takes on a high-profile case. Rhys will play her husband, the prosecutor on the case, while Reynor steps into the role of her client, the defendant at the center of the trial.
Season 1, led by Jake Gyllenhaal, was based on Scott Turow’s celebrated 1987 novel and its 1990 film adaptation. Gyllenhaal played Rusty Sabich, a Chicago prosecutor whose life spirals after a colleague’s murder makes him the prime suspect. The Apple TV+ debut season was a prestige breakout, landing four Emmy nominations: Gyllenhaal for Lead Actor, Ruth Negga for Supporting Actress, and both Bill Camp and Peter Sarsgaard for Supporting Actor.
For Rhys, Presumed Innocent is his second Apple TV+ project. He recently wrapped production on Widow’s Bay, a 10-episode supernatural drama from Katie Dippold in which he plays a New England mayor in denial about the island’s mysterious curse. Rhys will also appear in Netflix’s upcoming limited series The Beast in Me opposite Claire Danes and lend his voice to the fourth season of Invincible, premiering in 2026.
Was ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 1 Worth Seeing?
Collider‘s Emma Kiely hailed it as a “twisty, seductive legal thriller” in her 9/10 review:
Gyllenhaal gives his most intense performance to date, and it might even verge on melodramatic if it weren’t for the skillfully subdued supporting presences. His Rusty sits in sharp contrast to Ford’s cool and collected version, but it works for this approach to the story. When Gyllenhaal‘s Rusty isn’t violently acting out, he’s always simmering, making it hard to predict when he’ll eventually boil over.
With so many titles getting new adaptations, reboots, and remakes, Apple TV+‘s Presumed Innocent is a masterclass in how to take the source material and honor it while also doing something completely new with a familiar story. Its nuanced approach to justice, lust, power, ethics, and pride makes it one of the standout television shows of the year.
Season 2 of Presumed Innocent has no premiere date yet. The first season is on Apple TV+ now.
via Collider