One Star From Amazon’s The Wilds Already Knows Her Character Will Make It To The End

The Wilds cast in New Zealand
(Image credit: (Amazon))
(Image credit: (Amazon))

Warning: SPOILERS are ahead for Season 1 of Amazon Prime’s The Wilds.

After Amazon Prime’s first YA series The Wilds made a huge splash on the streaming service last month, the Unsinkable Eight will in fact live to see another dire day on the mysterious island they are being held on with another season now officially in development. The finale teased some major cliffhangers that we cannot wait to see play out in Season 2.

Among the impressive introductions made on the survival drama, one fan-favorite storyline we’re ready to get back to is Mia Healey’s blonde-haired Texan pageant princess Shelby Goodkind, who had started to come to terms with her sexuality on the island with Erana James’ Toni, while an unknown future timeline had her looking completely different and hardened by upcoming events. While speaking to Collider, Healey revealed what she is clued in about in terms of what’s next for her character:

I know where the writer wants to see Shelby at the end, at the absolute end of the entire series, where she wants to see Shelby and what she wants to see Shelby doing. So I know that that’s where she’s going, but I have no idea what’s gonna be happening in Season 2. What I’ve loved so much since the show was released is seeing everyone’s theories and reading everyone’s theories. I’m reading some of these theories and I’m like, ‘Oh my god, that’s it!’ You know what I mean? And there’s some that I didn’t even realize were happening that are so true. A lot of these theories are really spot on.

Whoa, sounds like Shelby is in it for the long haul! The Aussie actress may not have all the details on where her character will be heading next in the upcoming season, but it sounds like the showrunners have given her some heads up on the longevity of her role in the show. The Wilds is one of those shows where I don’t expect all eight of the young women to survive the brutal social experiment being pushed on them without their knowledge, but Shelby does seem like a main player primed to truck on for seasons to come.

Last we saw her in an undisclosed timeline in the bunker, Sarah Pidgeon’s Leah had just discovered a video monitor with a group of men in another island situation being watched for Gretchen’s experiment that seems aimed in finding data on her Dawn of Eve experiment, which appears to explore how women run civilizations if left alone to their own devices. Healey also talked about what she’s most interested in exploring about Shelby:

Oh, definitely her sexuality and her relationship with Toni, and the relationship that she has with herself and her God and her sexuality. I really want to see some growth there. I think she’s grown so much already, so I don’t want to put any pressure on [laughs], but I think there’s so much room there and I really want to see her just find comfort in herself and not be afraid to be who she is. I really want to see that for her, just personally, because I love that about her.

Between flashbacks, flash-forwards and the island timeline, there’s certainly a ton for the series to explore moving forward, with Shelby and Toni’s relationship being one of the more optimistic plotlines to see through. No word yet on when The Wilds returns for Season 2, but Healey has teased that it is “imminent.” While we spin more theories on what’s next, check out the best movies on Amazon Prime available to stream right now.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.