Quick — get to the bridge! Yep, The Ark is charting a hugely anticipated return course for this summer, launching a new exploration into uncharted territory when the hit SYFY original series embarks on its upcoming Season 2 in July. 

Season 1 of The Ark proved a big hit with fans, who latched onto the show’s killer premise of tracking humanity’s last remnants across a decades-long voyage: a desperate deep-space mission meant to establish a new planetary foothold, as people mount a massive colonization campaign to escape their dying Earth.  

Of course, things go wrong right from the start, after a tragic event wipes out most of the mission's highly-trained crew members right in the very first episode. The catastrophe instantly knocks the entire venture off course, leaving the ship’s survivors — trained or not — nearly stranded in space and forced to continue their journey with quick thinking and fast action.

Airing in April of 2023, The Ark's Season 1 finale ended on a huge cliffhanger, leaving fans at the threshold of some game-changing developments as the intrepid crew of the lonely Ark One discovers more than they bargained for about the mission itself… not to mention some unexpected surprises about what else has been lurking out there in the dark galactic vastness. 

It all sets the stage for a ton of questions that’re just begging for answers as Season 2 of The Ark gets ready to fire up  — so keep scrolling to find out everything you need to know about The Ark as we await the show’s sophomore-season return.

For more on The Ark:
Dean Devlin & Jonathan Glassner on what Separates SYFY's The Ark from Other Sci-Fi Shows
Having Sex in Space Might Be Harder Than We Thought
The Ark Creators on Their Passion to Build Optimistic Sci-Fi Worlds

What is The Ark about?

The Ark is set 100 years in the future, a time when technology and a little good old-fashioned global cooperation are enough — just barely — to support a massive, last-ditch effort to send humans on a space journey to colonize a permanent replacement for their ravaged and devastated home planet of Earth. Their destination is the distant Proxima b exoplanet, with the years-long voyage requiring much of the highly-trained crew to remain snoozing in deep cryo-sleep until their skills are required, much later, after the Ark One finally arrives at its new home. 

The early disaster that changes the whole mission serves as the real basis for all the drama, intrigue, and power struggles that unfold as the Ark One’s remaining survivors try to piece together a plan that’ll still safely get them to Proxima b — even if the ship has to limp its way there. Despite limited resources and endless mishaps that complicate their Season 1 journey, there’s really no other option: It’s Proxima b or bust, because the only other choice is simply to die in deep space. 

Sci-fi mastermind Dean Devlin (Stargate, Independence Day) co-created The Ark alongside fellow showrunner Jonathan Glassner (Stargate SG-1), and they’ve filled the series with treachery, romance, comedy, and sabotage amid a character ensemble whose personal quirks can’t help but come to life when jostled up against one another within the confines of an isolated spacecraft. Add in a Season 1 twist that literally explodes the crew’s hopes of ever making it to their original Proxima b destination, and the frontier of possibilities widens well beyond what fans thought they knew going into the series in the first place. 

When does The Ark Season 2 premiere?

SYFY announced that The Ark would be returning for a second season just as Season 1 was concluding in April of 2023. Now the time is almost here: Season 2 of The Ark sets sail on SYFY with a premiere date of Wednesday, July 17 at 10/9c.

How to watch The Ark

When it comes to finding The Ark on the small screen, nothing’s changed from the show’s first season. As a SYFY original series, The Ark will air each new Season 2 episode on SYFY every week beginning on July 17. You can also catch new episodes on the go by downloading and dialing up the SYFY app. Click here for an app landing page that’ll point you straight to your digital platform of choice.
 

How to watch Season 1 of The Ark

If you’re a Peacock subscriber, this one’s super-easy: Season 1 of The Ark already is available to stream in its entirety, 24/7, on the bird app.

Who stars in The Ark?

From Lt. Garnet at the top of command chain all the way down to Angus, the brainiac science guy who composts the ship’s sewage (eww!), The Ark is populated by an eclectic and varied cast of distinctive crew members. Here’s a quick flyby peek at the show’s key players:

Lt. Sharon Garnet (Christie Burke)

Selfless and unafraid in more or less equal measure, Garnet (Twilight Saga alum Christie Burke) takes command of the Ark One after higher-ranking officers all are killed in the wild Season 1 disaster that sets the overall tone for the show. Thanks to that ill twist of fate, she’s definitely got a lot on her plate as the ship’s de facto leader, even as she tiptoes around some well-kept personal secrets that hearken back to her time before ever leaving Earth. Garnet butts heads early with Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie) over who should actually be in charge, but her altruism and instinct for self-sacrifice eventually earn her the loyalty and admiration of Lane and (almost!) everyone else on the ship. 

Lt. James Brice (Richard Fleeshman)

Brice (Richard Fleeshman) is the closest thing The Ark has to a prototypically hunk-y good guy. He’s big and strong, but also stoic in the face of adversity, and usually the first to volunteer for what most of his colleagues regard as suicide missions. The fact he has a rare disease — one that shows no symptoms but could kill him at any time — probably has something to do with that. But after finding a cure and kindling a romance with maintenance chief Eva (Tiana Upcheva) late in Season 1, Lt. Brice might have a whole new outlook on mortality as The Ark spins back up for Season 2.

Lt. Spencer Lane (Reece Ritchie)

The Ark kept Lt. Lane (Reece Ritchie) right on the fringes of potential-villain territory until the back half of its first season, thanks to Lane’s kinda-reasonable questioning of Garnet’s leadership in the face of a total power vacuum aboard the ship. But Lane and Garnet eventually close ranks after bigger challenges emerge, and by the time he makes it to the Season 1 finale, Lane shows that his heart’s actually in the right place after all. Alongside Brice and Garnet, Lane rates as one of the Ark One’s most respected voices — even as he sets aside his alpha-dog personality to cede to Garnet the ultimate command of the ship and its crew.

Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read)

A fan favorite for her infectiously upbeat, energetic, and completely geeky persona when it comes to anything science-y at all, waste engineer Alicia Nevins (Stacey Read) shows enough pluck and resourcefulness throughout Season 1 to quickly ascend to a place among the Ark One’s inner circle of leadership. Her endearingly awkward romantic bond with Angus (Ryan Adams), the ship’s equally nerdy crop specialist, breaks the Season 1 tension with a welcome undercurrent of sweet and unabashedly sappy comic relief.

Angus Medford (Ryan Adams)

Like Alicia, Angus (Ryan Adams) has a big ol’ science brain — which probably explains why the two are able to hit it off over talks about something as sketchy as recycling human compost. Though he spends most of his working hours making plants grow down in the deepest bowels of the ship, Angus and his green thumb save the Ark One’s bacon more than once in Season 1, as Garnet and the team fret over the crew’s food future.  

Felix Strickland (Pavle Jerinić)

Security chief Felix (Pavle Jerinić) does things strictly by the book, an ideal trait for a guy who’s in charge of maintaining law and order amid the Ark One’s big team of survivors. Like other key crew members, Felix carries some heavy personal baggage that dates to his life back on Earth — but he never lets it get in the way of solving the myriad criminal mysteries that spring up aboard a vessel where desperation drives a handful of miscreants toward theft, sabotage, and (gasp!) — even murder.

Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris)

Taking care of everyone on The Ark is a big, big job, and it all falls heavily on the shoulders of overworked medical specialist Dr. Sanjivni Kabir (Shalini Peiris). Conscientious to a fault, Dr. Kabir has a hard time stepping away from her duty long enough to recharge her own mental batteries, leading to a Season 1 story arc that sees her sampling stimulants out of the ship’s supply stash in order to keep up with the endless workload. With help from trusted friends and a little well-placed faith in Felix (who also has medical training), Dr. Kabir finally musters the will to kick her stim dependency once and for all — and with Season 2 fast approaching, it happens not a moment too soon. 

Eva Markovic (Tiana Upcheva)

Maintenance chief Eva (Tiana Upcheva) wears her no-nonsense personality like a shield that protects her inner vulnerability — a weak spot that Lt. Brice eventually finds through a long-developing Season 1 friendship that leads to romance. Eva has her reasons, though, for being so slow to close the emotional gap with the rest of her crew mates, thanks to an early-season tragedy that kills off her original love interest. 

Dr. Cat Brandice (Christina Wolfe)

Aboard the Ark One, she’s the doctor who’s not really a doctor — you know, the kind of pretty, perky social media influencer who (at least back on Earth) could dish life advice without actually knowing a whole lot about anything. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Garnet decides to designate Cat (aka Dr. Brandice, played by Christina Wolfe) as the ship’s resident mental health therapist. It’s a position that affords Cat oodles of insight into everyone else’s private life, all with the assurance that her ethos of doctor-patient confidentiality will keep the crew’s many skeletons safely locked in a well-guarded closet of secrecy. Naturally, Cat's also keeping a few secrets of her own: Her remarkable revelation about hiding a game-changing disability, all in plain sight, is a major Season 1 highlight.

Get to the bridge fast, because the big moment is almost here! Season 2 of The Ark premieres on SYFY beginning Wednesday, July 17 at 10/9c. Catch up on the entirety of Season 1, streaming now on Peacock!