The Gilded Age season 1 spoilers follow.
The second season of HBO's The Gilded Age will not see the return of its unscrupulous young lawyer, Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel).
The Australian actor, who played Marian's (Louisa Jacobson) ex-fiancé Tom, will not be back for the period drama's second chapter as suggested in season 1 – having proved himself unfit for Marian's hand in marriage (via Deadline).
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Meanwhile, 13 recurring cast members have been promoted to series regulars including: Kelli O'Hara (Aurora Fane), Donna Murphy (Mrs Astor) Debra Monk (Armstrong), Kristine Nielsen (Mrs Bauer) and Taylor Richardson as Bridget.
Ben Ahlers is also returning as Jack Trotter, Kelley Curran as Turner, Douglas Sills as Baudin 'Borden', Celia Keenan-Bolger as Mrs Bruce and Michael Cerveris as Watson. Erin Wilhelmi will be back as Adelheid Weber, Patrick Page as Richard Clay and Sullivan Jones as T Thomas Fortune.
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The promoted cast will join 11 returning series regulars including: Christine Baranski (Agnes Van Rhijn), Cynthia Nixon (Ada Brook), Louisa Jacobson (Marian Brook), Blake Ritson (Oscar Van Rhijn) and Carrie Coon as Bertha Russell.
Also back are Morgan Spector (George Russell), Taissa Farmiga (Gladys Russell), Harry Richardson (Larry Russell), Denée Benton (Peggy Scott), Simon Jones (Van Rhijns' butler Bannister), and Jack Gilpin as Russels' butler Church.
This means the show's 11 returning actors in season 2 (excluding Cocquerel), will yield a cast of 24 series regulars for its next season.
The official synopsis for season 2 reads: "The Gilded Age was a period of immense economic change, of huge fortunes made and lost, and of fierce rivalry between old money and new.
Related: The Gilded Age's costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone explains the power of corsets and bustles
"Nowhere is that rivalry more apparent than on East 61st Street, where Marian Brook and her thoroughly old money aunts, Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook, live opposite the stupendously rich George and Bertha Russell."
It adds: "The Russells are both fiercely ambitious, he financially, she socially, and they are determined to reach the highest echelons of New York. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, Marian’s friend and confidant Peggy Scott forges her own path in the world of the Black elite.
"In this glittering world on the brink of the modern age, will the established rules of society prevail, or will the game change entirely?"
The Gilded Age airs on Sky Atlantic, as well as the streaming service NOW, in the UK. It airs on HBO and HBO Max in the US.
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