Who else is ready to fly back to the mysteries of Manifest's Flight 828? The NBC show is coming back for Manifest Season 2 in early January 2020, and it sounds like Josh Dallas' character Ben Stone has quite a roller coaster of emotions ahead.
The Manifest Season 1 finale had multiple cliffhangers and left a humdinger of an anvil hanging over the heads of our Flight 828 passengers. Ben and Olive seemed to crack the code of the passengers' "expiration dates," calculating that they were missing for 2,037 days, putting their possible "expiration date" 2,037 days from their return, on June 2, 2024. So that might be their "Estimated Time of Departure."
Might!
A TVLine reader asked how the Manifest characters will deal with the news that Flight 828 passengers like Ben, Cal, and Michaela Stone might only have until June 2, 2024 to live. Here's how Josh Dallas answered the question for the site:
[Ben] is going to accept the idea, and he’s going to start making preparations for his death date, for his family that’s going to be left. And that’s going to create a really great emotional richness to the story, but he’s not going to fully accept it.
That makes sense. I can see Ben Stone getting a bit mushy -- especially with wife Grace being pregnant with what is most likely not his baby but still someone he'd care about -- and trying to cherish every moment with his family. He's already missed a lot from the time jump. However, it also makes sense that he wouldn't completely accept it. There has to be something they can do, right?
Well, Josh Dallas teased that Manifest Season 2, Episode 7 will shift things in a big way:
Something very major happens within the mythology… that takes Ben’s way of thinking and shifts it.
Now we're talking! Manifest Season 1 had 16 episodes. I'm not sure yet about the plan for Season 2, but it's possible Episode 7 will be close to mid-season. I'm slightly worried that we know this mindset shift is coming, whatever it is, and it will take seven episodes to get to it. But it sounds like something happens that gives Ben hope, maybe, and he no longer thinks he just has to accept the death date?
Manifest Season 2 has so many questions to answer, including who got shot in the big Zeke vs. Jared gunfight in the Season 1 finale. Zeke actor Matt Long told CinemaBlend his hopes for Zeke in Season 2, and of course he shared his reasoning for why Michaela Stone should be with his character instead of Jared.
Don't forget that Manifest Season 2 will be adding some new characters to the story, including a Blue Bloods vet as Ben Stone's ex-girlfriend (she'd better stay ex so Saanvi + Ben can be endgame). We'll also meet a Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists alum as another Flight 828 passenger.
Will Ginnifer Goodwin join Josh Dallas on Manifest Season 2 for a Once Upon a Time Snow White/Prince Charming reunion? I'd love that, and Ginny would too, it seems. We'll have to see if they find a little role for her that makes sense or skip it as a nice idea that didn't work out.
Manifest Season 2 premieres Monday, January 6 on NBC, as just one of many premieres to look forward to in early 2020. Here's a lineup of everything ahead on TV in the new year.
