Rivals Season 2 Is Here: Release Schedule, New Cast & Where to Watch on Hulu and Disney+

The most gleefully filthy show on prestige TV is back. Rivals Season 2 · the long-anticipated return of Disney+ and Hulu's adaptation of Jilly Cooper's 1988 bonkbuster · premiered on Thursday, May 15, 2026, with the first three episodes dropping at once and weekly releases set to follow through the summer. Hayley Atwell and Rupert Everett are new to the show. David Tennant, Danny Dyer, and Aidan Turner are all back. And the Chavenage House bonfires are, by all accounts, even bigger this time.

Here's everything to know about the release schedule, the new cast, and how Season 2 is shaping up against the runaway critical hit that was Season 1.

When does Rivals Season 2 release?

Disney+ and Hulu rolled out the first three episodes of Season 2 on Thursday, May 15, 2026, in both the UK and US simultaneously · the same dual-platform strategy that Season 1 used. From there, episodes will drop weekly on Thursdays through the summer.

The catch is the season order. There are twelve episodes in total across Season 2, but Disney+ is splitting the run into two batches. The first six episodes will drop on a weekly cadence through late June. The remaining six will land later in 2026, with the second-half premiere date not yet officially announced. Disney is referring to the two halves as Part 1 and Part 2, though the show itself is being treated as a single twelve-episode season.

Rivals Season 2 release schedule (Part 1)

• Episodes 1, 2, 3 · Thursday, May 15, 2026
• Episode 4 · Thursday, May 22, 2026
• Episode 5 · Thursday, May 29, 2026
• Episode 6 · Thursday, June 5, 2026 (Part 1 finale)
• Episodes 7–12 · TBA, expected later in 2026

Where to watch Rivals Season 2

The show streams in two different homes depending on where you live. In the US, all episodes are on Hulu. In the UK, Ireland, and most of Europe, the show is on Disney+. The release timing is synchronized · episodes drop at the same global moment on Thursdays, with the exact local time depending on your region.

For viewers without an existing subscription: Hulu starts at $7.99/month (with ads) in the US, with the show included in every tier. Disney+ starts at £4.99/month in the UK and €5.99 across most of Europe. Disney+ and Hulu can also be bundled in the US for a meaningful discount, which is the route most US viewers paying for both will already be on.

Who's in the Rivals Season 2 cast?

The Season 1 core is back almost in full. David Tennant returns as Lord Tony Baddingham, the lord of Corinium Television and the show's reigning villain. Danny Dyer returns as Freddie Jones, the working-class tech mogul whose rise into Rutshire society is one of the show's central engines. Aidan Turner returns as Declan O'Hara, the Irish broadcasting star at the center of the Corinium versus Venturer feud. Katherine Parkinson is back as Lizzie Vereker. Emily Atack reprises Sarah Stratton. Alex Hassell · the breakout standout of Season 1 · returns as Rupert Campbell-Black, still in full command of the character that made Season 1 a watercooler show.

The two big new additions are the headlines:

• Hayley Atwell joins the cast in a major recurring role that Disney has been deliberately vague about pre-launch, though early episode descriptions suggest she's playing a London-based broadcaster who arrives in Rutshire with a brief that puts her squarely in the middle of the Corinium versus Venturer war
• Rupert Everett joins as a long-rumored figure from Rupert Campbell-Black's pre-show past who arrives in episode two and immediately starts pulling at threads no one wanted pulled

Both additions are positioned as season-long arcs rather than guest stints, and both are reportedly given material that justifies the casting · particularly Everett, who reportedly has at least one monologue in episode three that's already being singled out in early reviews.

What's Rivals Season 2 about?

The show picks up not long after the Season 1 finale, with the consequences of the Corinium versus Venturer franchise battle still rippling through the county. The Season 1 arc · Tony Baddingham's attempt to crush Venturer's bid for the Rutshire ITV franchise, and the alliance of misfits who came together to stop him · has resolved, and Season 2 has the messier job of figuring out what these characters do once the central villain has been temporarily disarmed.

The Cooper novel that Season 2 is drawing from extends the story into more romantic, more melancholy territory than the franchise-war plot of Season 1, and the adaptation reportedly leans into that · there is more genuine emotional stakes between several of the central couples, more attention to the children's generation of characters (including a major thread for Taggie O'Hara), and the introduction of London-versus-Rutshire tension as a new structural conflict.

There are also, per the marketing, more elaborate set pieces: at least one large-scale country-house party, a televised live broadcast that goes spectacularly off the rails, and a return to Chavenage House for what's been described as the season's defining bonfire sequence. The show's tonal calling card · sex, money, dialogue that crackles like a Jilly Cooper paragraph, and the occasional flash of genuine heart · is intact.

How are early reviews of Rivals Season 2?

The first batch of reviews has been notably warmer than even Season 1's · which is impressive, given Season 1 went on to win the International Emmy Award for Best Drama. The Guardian awarded the first three episodes a five-star review, calling Season 2 "filthier, funnier, and more emotionally generous than the first." The Telegraph singled out Hassell's continued ownership of Rupert Campbell-Black and the depth that Everett's introduction adds to the character's history.

The early consensus is that Season 2 benefits from the cast having found their rhythm, the addition of Atwell and Everett bringing fresh oxygen, and the writers' willingness to slow down for the relationship plotting that Season 1 occasionally sprinted past. The pacing is reportedly slightly more leisurely · the season takes its time getting to the bigger set pieces · but the dialogue work remains the strongest on either streamer.

Do you need to watch Rivals Season 1 first?

Yes · and you should want to. Season 2 isn't a hard reset; it picks up directly from the consequences of the Corinium franchise war, and a lot of the relationships in the first three episodes only land if you know how the characters got there. Fortunately, Season 1 is only eight episodes and is, by all reasonable measures, one of the best pieces of TV the streamers produced in the past two years.

If you've never watched Rivals, the binge is roughly nine hours and is worth every minute of it. Season 2 will be there waiting when you finish.

Will there be a Rivals Season 3?

Disney+ has not officially renewed the show for a third season, but the source material gives the adaptation a clear runway. Jilly Cooper's "Rutshire Chronicles" extend across more than half a dozen interconnected novels, and the next major book in the timeline · Polo · is the one most fans expect Season 3 to draw from. The Season 2 split-release strategy and the high-profile new cast also suggest Disney is treating Rivals as a long-running tentpole rather than a contained mini-series.

If the Season 2 viewing numbers match the critical reception, a Season 3 renewal is the most likely outcome before the second-half episodes drop later this year.

The bottom line

Rivals Season 1 was one of the rare shows that managed to be both critically loved and joyously trashy at the same time. Season 2 · at least based on the first three episodes · looks like it's holding the line on both counts, while adding two of British cinema's most reliable scene-stealers to the bench. If you spent the autumn of 2024 chasing the post-Rivals-Season-1 high, the wait is officially over.

Rivals Season 2 is streaming now on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK, Ireland, and most of Europe. Three new episodes are live, with weekly drops every Thursday through June 5.