Twisted Metal season 2 finally brings The Tournament to screens, and it’s a no-holds-barred demolition derby “I see this season, honestly, as a second chance at a first impression”

In a giant hangar space on the fringes of Toronto, something is about to go down. GamesRadar+ is here to watch the return of Twisted Metal for its second season. On the set, a car-filled chop-shop, Anthony Mackie is slipping on his leather jacket, back once again as John Doe, the memory-addled ‘milkman’, who spent season one criss-crossing a post-apocalyptic America. Alongside him, Stephanie Beatriz – who plays John’s sometime companion Quiet – is having her hair adjusted moments before a take.

Just out of shot is Anthony Carrigan, about to perform one of the key moments in the season, as his mysterious character Calypso explains the rules – and what’s at stake – for The Tournament. The very cornerstone of the original video game series that the show is inspired by The Tournament is the season two centerpiece – Twisted Metal in a nutshell. A no-holds-barred demolition derby, promising untold vehicular carnage, it also comes with the ultimate prize: the winner gets one wish granted.

Today’s scene also serves another purpose, with the characters able to get their cars fine-tuned. “It’s our in-world version [of the moment] in between levels of the game, how the car kind of resets,” explains showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith. With 12 episodes incoming, the message is clear: Twisted Metal’s first season was a tune-up. Now the engines really roar. “I think the stakes are a lot higher this season,” adds Carrigan, the actor currently featuring as Metamorpho in James Gunn’s Superman.

Life is sweet

Staging The Tournament is the perfect way to ship a host of unhinged characters into the show. Back again is that psychopathic, clown-masked funster Sweet Tooth (played by pro-wrestler Joe Seanoa and voiced by Will Arnett). But otherwise, it’s a clean slate. Some are brand new, created for the show, including Mayhem, a teenager raised in the apocalypse, played by Saylor Bell Curda. But most will be familiar to Twisted Metal gamers, like the Grim Reaper-esque Mr Grimm (Richard de Klerk) and Vermin (Lisa Gilroy), with her bright yellow pest-control van The Roach Coach.

Then there’s Axel (Michael Shaw), the bare-chested colossus who jets about on his terrifying-looking War Wheel. Smith promises that Axel is going to have “a new backstory” that will unfold across the season. “We’re trying to take him down a new path. His whole attitude is he thinks he’s king shit of fuck mountain, even though he doesn’t wear a shirt! So he’s a lot of fun.” Mackie, also on board as an executive producer, agrees readily. “Mike Shaw… he’s just killing it,” he says. “It’s fun to see and think of playing the video game where there was no story, and now you see this actual person playing the character. It’s everything I could have asked for as a producer.”

The very fact the Twisted Metal video game series was a plot-less smash-’em-up offers tremendous freedom, adds Mackie – not least creating John Doe from scratch. “The exploration of it is really what made me want to do it as a producer and as an actor, because the only people who get those fucking opportunities are Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. They can show up and be like, ‘I’m a Smurf!’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, Oscar!’ You know what I mean? But if anybody else does that, your director’s like, ‘Don’t do that.’ So we all look for those experiences where we can act and have fun and be Johnny Depp.”

Keep Quiet

While the bar in video game adaptations has recently been raised thanks to The Last of Us and Fallout, Smith admits he didn’t feel any pressure to compete. “I’m a huge fan of both of those shows. And I love that the fans look at us in concert with them. There’s no comparison. We’re the fun stepchild. We’re doing cool stuff too. Honestly, I looked at last season, I’m like, ‘I want to up my game.’ I didn’t need to look at the other shows to feel that. I saw where things were successful and saw where we can improve. I see this season honestly as a second chance at a first impression.”

The “fun stepchild” is about right, with Twisted Metal a show laced with a grim humour that undercuts the bleak backdrop, the Divided States of America. “What I learned so much from the first season is that when we went weirder, we were more successful,” adds Smith, a comment that bodes well for the road ahead. This season sees John reunited with his sister, Dollface, played by Tiana Okoye – with the added twist that Quiet has now joined her gang, the Dolls. Starting eight months on from the end of season one, John is trying to find his way back to Quiet.

“I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s some really big changes,” hints Beatriz, talking about her character’s journey across season two. “And I think that’s part of what’s really interesting about the beginning of the season, especially. These two people really cared about each other and were torn apart, and what happens when they come back together? Are they still a unit? Have things changed too much? Are they still going to be the same kind of team? Is it not possible for them to connect in the same way?”

Road warriors

But let’s face it: we’re really here for the twisted metal itself, as John and his fellow Tournament competitors undertake their own deadly version of the Wacky Races. With over forty cars being used, it’s gonna be a wild ride. “I have such car envy,” laughs Anthony Carrigan. “I mean, he does in the video game have a car at one point, so just putting it out there. But yeah, it’s really cool, and there’s very little acting involved when I actually watch the cars and the incredible stunt team pulling off these just epic, epic stunts in these cars.”

With the production moving from sweltering New Orleans to the more temperate Toronto, season two has left everyone in good spirits – a perfect tonic for conjuring up the show’s essential humour. “We have some really funny people on this show, just some real jackasses,” laughs Mackie. “I think there’s a show on the camera, and there’s a really stupid, really bad show off camera. Like we could literally shoot a version of The Office if we just turn the cameras around and shot us once we said cut.” A Twisted Metal behind-the-scenes doc? Sign us up.

Twisted Metal Season 2 releases on Peacock in the US from July 31 and on Paramount+ in the UK from August 1.

For more, check out our rundown of the best new TV shows coming your way, or how about our list of the Best Paramount Plus shows.