Just because Netflix credited Untamed as a limited series doesn’t mean the show can’t come back for a season 2.
Before the show premiered on Thursday, July 17, Lily Santiago spoke exclusively with Us Weekly about the possibility of a renewal, teasing, “I am waiting for the phone call. I’m like, ‘Find me on the horse on the mountain. I’m ready to go.’”
Santiago, who plays Naya Vasquez, admitted she wasn’t ready for the show to end.
“It’s amazing working on a limited series,” she noted. “But I think that there’s part of me that was like, ‘But I love these people and I love this character. Can we do six more [episodes] right now?’”
Untamed, which also stars Eric Bana, Sam Neill, Wilson Bethel and Rosemarie DeWitt, is set in Yosemite National Park where a woman’s death draws a federal agent into lawless terrain, where nature obeys no rules but its own. Over the course of the first season, Santiago’s character evolved from a rookie National Park Service ranger to a more confident version of herself who finally started to feel at home.
“I didn’t know my full journey at all [when I joined Untamed]. But nothing that happened surprised me because I felt like I knew Naya so well,” Santiago recalled.”I really felt this attachment to her and understanding how she would respond to these moments in nature or these scary human moments. So I was just always excited to see what they were going to throw me into next.”
While Untamed didn’t actually film in a national park, most of the scenes were still shot in the great outdoors: Chip Kerr Park to be specific.
“I have this unfortunate habit of always filming outside on location. I feel like I’ve never filmed indoors. We had an incredible safety team because there’s a lot of bears in Vancouver. We were very protected and there were those challenges. There’s also a lot of rain and mud,” she noted. “The horses don’t like being in mud because they’re just sinking. But we have to get them up a mountain. There’s an urgency there. But it’s the reality when the wind is hitting your face or you see the beautiful mountains or tree lines — taking that all in while you’re filming is really special.”
Speaking of horses, Naya’s novice skills when it came to horseback riding was something she had in common with Santiago.
“It’s always been my dream for somebody to hire me to learn a new skill. That’s exactly what happened here. I had never in my adult life ridden a horse. I love animals so I wasn’t scared. I was just so excited,” she shared with Us. “I had to realize there’s moments where Naya really doesn’t like the horse and I — as Lily — was like, ‘But I love him.’ So I was learning alongside the character. Her discomfort on the horse was very different from mine but that allowed me to actually play the discomfort more because I was so happy to just be on this giant magical creature.”
Santiago concluded: “When I read the script, I was like, ‘Untamed is going to be one of my favorite shows to watch. I didn’t think that they’d look at me twice. I was like, ‘I just can’t wait to watch it.’ With Naya, it’s just an opportunity that I don’t get very often to play somebody this well-rounded. She gets to exist as a full human being with humor, fear, vulnerability and strength. I just absolutely adore this script and adore this character because she feels close to me.”
Untamed is currently streaming on Netflix.
