'Spinners' Season 2 got its first public airing at Silwerskermfees 2026, with stars Cantona James and Luyanda Zwane breaking down the new chapter.
The cast of ‘Spinners’ Season 2 took the stage for a post-screening Q&A at Silwerskermfees, offering the first real insight into the acclaimed drama’s highly anticipated return. Picture: Supplied, Silwerskerm,kykNet
South African television’s most talked-about comeback, Spinners, received its first public test screening at this year’s Silwerskermfees.
Festival goers got an exclusive first-episode screening of Spinners Season 2 on the festival’s third day, Friday. If the audience reaction is any guide, the show’s return carries high expectations and is well placed to meet them.
The screening drew a visibly engaged crowd, many of whom have spent the better part of three years asking (as star Cantona James put it in a separate conversation) “where the second season is”.
Raising the stakes
Season 1 of Spinners earned a strong reputation for grounded, emotionally resonant storytelling. A co-production between Showmax and Canal+, it became the first African series selected for competition at Canneseries, won Best Foreign TV Series at the Shanghai TV Festival’s Magnolia Awards (beating the final season of Succession), collected three awards at Dakar Series (including Best TV Series), and received a standing ovation at its sold-out Silwerskerm premiere, along with multiple Safta nominations.
Critics praised its authenticity, performances (especially James as Ethan), and blend of gang drama with the high-octane world of spinning.
Season 2 arrives with bigger ambitions and a new element of danger: newcomer Luyanda Zwane joins the cast as part of a chilling new crime-family storyline (the Maseko clan), injecting a harder, higher-stakes edge into the drama’s next chapter.
Zwane, making her first foray into long-form series work and shooting in Cape Town for the first time, described walking into the production with real trepidation about the tonal shift the new arc demands-tempered by an immediate sense of welcome from the existing cast and crew.
She recalled the cast’s first director’s rehearsal as setting the tone for the shoot: nerves about tackling the season’s darker “massacres,” met with a production culture that made the transition feel seamless from day one.
“You have to fix you”
For James, a Season 1 veteran, the conversation kept returning to why the cast pushed through a demanding shoot.
Working within budget constraints similar to those that shaped the first season, he pointed to the emotional stakes driving everyone forward, chiefly, giving audiences the resolution they have waited years for around Ethan’s arc.
Where Season 1 was about proving survival was possible, James framed Season 2’s core theme as something more introspective: making it through is not enough on its own. The season is equally concerned with characters confronting and repairing themselves.
James was also candid about the broader industry pressures facing South African productions, calling for greater investment in and recognition of local film and television. These sentiments landed with particular weight given the setting; an event built specifically to celebrate the industry’s homegrown talent.
A statement season
Between the screening’s reception and the cast’s own remarks, Spinners Season 2 is shaping up as a statement season.
This time around, the story raises the emotional and narrative stakes while staying anchored in the character-driven groundwork that made the original a critical and audience hit.
Showmax, the original home of the series, was discontinued at the end of April 2026 after Canal+ (which acquired MultiChoice) determined its losses were unsustainable in a competitive streaming market. Many Showmax Originals, including Spinners, have since moved to DStv Stream (available to Compact and higher packages) and/or linear channels such as Mzansi Magic, where the new season will premiere on Sunday, 25 October 2026, at 8pm.
