Fortitude returns for season two: What can we expect?

The television thriller Fortitude, set in a fictional Arctic Norwegian settlement, is back tomorrow for a second series. After a break of almost two years, the hit thriller promises even more ice-capped blood, guts and drama.

What was the first series about?

Strange things began to happen in the settlement of Fortitude after two men secretly discovered the carcass of an extinct mammoth in the ice. Residents were found murdered, others disappeared and some were overcome with an unknown illness.

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Two scientists, Vincent Rattrey (Luke Treadaway) and Natalie Yelburton (Sienna Guillory), eventually found the answer: pre-historic wasps incubated in the body of the mammoth had injected tiny eggs into the bloodstream of their victims. Those infected then sought out a second person to hack open and expunge the larvae into.

Unfortunately, by the time they worked this out, Rattrey was trapped in a hospital room with a secondary host, whose body was being ravaged from the inside out by a plague of new wasps. Rattrey was forced to blow up the hospital room, leaving himself with severe burns, while the other contaminated areas in Fortitude were burned – but was it enough to stop the spread of the infection?

What will happen in the next series?

According to Sky, the show will return with "big plot twists" and a mysterious stranger will "terrorise the residents of the remote town". One trailer shows a headless body discovered in the snow and viewers have been warned that "bad things come out at night".

Creator Simon Donald has previously revealed that the second series picks up just seven weeks after the events of the season one finale and will deal with their emotional impact on the community. For example, Richard Dormer's police chief Dan Anderssen will have to deal with the fact that he shot the woman he loved after she was infected.

"We haven't yet understood completely the whole story of what has happened," Donald told the Radio Times. "There is another ingredient we've already seen which is going to feature in the second series."

Are there any new characters?

Many of Fortitude's residents met a gruesome end in the first series, but there are still a handful who will return. Treadaway, Guillory and Dormer are back, as well as Sofie Grabol, as Fortitude's governor, Hildur Odegard. The Day After Tomorrow star Dennis Quaid is a new face in town, as is Game of Thrones actress Michelle Fairley.

When is it on?

Fortitude returns to Sky Atlantic and Sky Box Sets on Thursday 26 January at 9.00pm.