ABC just offered the first look at season 2 of High Potential — and some of Us have got our eye on newcomer Steve Howey’s scenes with Kaitlin Olson.
The network released a still on Wednesday, August 20, showing Howey’s character, Nick, reaching out to shake Morgan’s (Olson) hand at the precinct. It was previously revealed that Howey will star on season 2 as “a savvy political animal who knows how to wear an expensive suit and oozes effortless charm.”
According to the official character description, Nick is “a guy who can launch a million fundraisers with his smile” and “has disruptor tenacity and likes thinking outside the box” like Morgan. “He has a way of putting himself right in the middle of the action … whether he’s wanted there or not,” the description continues.
Along with Olson, Howey, 48, is joining costars Daniel Sunjata, Javicia Leslie, Deniz Akdeniz, Amirah J, Matthew Lamb and Judy Reyes.
High Potential, which will return this fall, follows mom-of-three Morgan who teams up with the LAPD to help solve murders with her high IQ. She gets paired up with Detective Karadec (Sunjata), who is initially skeptical about how Morgan can assist the Major Crimes unit but ultimately starts to rely on her.
It only took fans a few episodes to notice how Karadec and Morgan’s dynamic reminded them of other slow-burn couples on procedural shows.
“I will definitely say that I actually don’t have the actual ultimate answer to where they’re going to go. In terms of the will-they-won’t-they between Karadec and Morgan, that is up to our writers’ room,” Sunjata, 53, exclusively told Us Weekly in November 2024. “I think that they’re going to play the long game with that particular story line.”
Sunjata did not rule out Karadec and Morgan remaining platonic for now — or even for good.
“Honestly, if we ended up getting, like, five seasons, Karadec and Morgan could just stay really good friends with a mutual professional respect who deeply care for one another and maybe flirted with the idea of some kind of romantic interaction,” he noted. “But if that never happened, that would be a really cool way to take it also.”
At the time, Sunjata made it clear that the pair’s fate was up to the writers. “I would say that there’s definitely some electricity between the two of them. There’s a reluctant mutual attraction that’s happening,” he added. “But I don’t think we should expect to see anything crazy about that happening anytime soon.”
Executive producer and showrunner Todd Harthan gave Us a more promising update three months later.
“You never know. I don’t let my guard down about those things either. I don’t get overly confident until your audience dictates a lot of the things you do. What do they have a big appetite for?” Harthan shared with Us about his plans for the fan-favorite characters. “I might be infamous for slow planning things, but I love a slow burn. Like, selfishly I just love it.”
Season 2 will continue to invest in Morgan and Karadec — regardless of whether there’s a romantic payoff.
“We’re going to write that for a while. Even if you at some point fall in love with somebody, maybe you also are more in love with the partnership and the friendship. And maybe you are scared enough of the risk of crossing certain lines,” Harthan hinted. “To me, it’s so fun to play in that space before you cross certain lines. There’s a lot of life in this show and I want to make sure we do it at a pace that doesn’t leave a good story on the table.”
High Potential returns to ABC Tuesday, September 16, at 10 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.
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