BREAKING NEWS: Damian Hardung Reveals Season 2 of Maxton Hall Pushed Him to Unhealthy Limits .giang

Like fans, Damian Hardung is excited for season 2 of Maxton Hall: The World Between Us — but filming didn’t come without its challenges.

The actor, 26, revealed that the highly-anticipated installment of the Prime Video series is darker than the first and confessed that the filming process took a toll during a recent appearance on the Short Take podcast.

“I just did the ADR for it and the second season is really dark and [there’s] a lot of grief and trauma in my character,” Hardung, who plays James Beaufort, explained.

“I had a really tough time shooting that, it really pushed me to a point where I’m like, ‘I don’t know if that’s healthy anymore.’ So, I’m really eager to see how that played out on screen,” he added.

Though he usually has positive experiences on set, Hardung said he struggled to find his typical optimism while working on season 2.

“I have the privilege of having the perspective of enjoying most of the stuff I end up doing, [of having] that lightheartedness, which went away a bit shooting James in the second season,” he continued. “I really tried to get back to that because that’s something very close to me.”

Adapted from German author Mona Kasten’s trilogy, Save Me, Save You and Save Us, Maxton Hall follows Ruby Bell (Harriet Herbig-Matten), a determined scholar at a prestigious boarding school, Maxton Hall, with aspirations to attend Oxford.

As Ruby navigates the academic landscape amongst her wealthy peers, she finds herself in an unlikely romance with James Beaufort (Hardung), heir to his family’s fortune.

Despite attempts to ignore a growing spark, the two develop a nurturing romance as they bond over personal challenges and family secrets. Season one concluded with James grieving his mother’s sudden death and then finding himself an outsider (literally) of Ruby’s seemingly happy life without him.

In September 2024, Hardung reflected on the whirlwind second season in an Instagram post.

“Since the first season came out, it all feels a bit surreal at times,” he began in the caption. “Portraying James this summer has been the biggest privilege, but also the biggest challenge I’ve ever had in this often weird job.”

After thanking fans for their support and kind messages, the actor admitted it felt surreal to not return to set as James, but teased that he was “starting another journey tomorrow,”

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Season 1 of Maxton Hall – The World Between Us can be streamed on Prime Video.