Q&A: North of North creators on what to expect from season two

Viewers return to Ice Cove in APTN’s North of North season two as the show’s lead, Siaja, starts a new life after leaving her husband and getting a job at the community centre.

Guided by Pilimmaksarniq – the Inuktitut concept of mastering skills through observation, practice and effort – the young Inuk mother Siaja works to continue building her life in season two.

“We meet Siaja a few months into that initial blowing up of her life and she has to put her head down and get to work and figure out what kind of life she actually wants now,” said Stacey Aglok McDonald, co-creative and executive producer of the hit comedy series.

“It’s not easy and she knows that she wants the best for her life, her daughter’s life and the life of her community. With that comes a lot of hijinks, a lot more mistakes and a lot of funny stuff.”

North of North is a co-production between APTN, CBC, and Netflix, and is filmed in Iqaluit and Toronto. The first season won nine Canadian Screen Awards, was the most-watched new original series on CBC Gem, and was rated 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

The second season premiered on APTN+ on September 1 and will premier on CBC Gem, CBC TV and APTN TV on September 8. It will launch globally on Netflix later this fall.

Many of the main cast returns for season two, including Anna Lambe as Siaja, Maika Harper as Neevee, Mary Lynn Rajskub as Helen, Jay Ryan as Alistair and Kelly William as Ting.

Season two will also feature guest stars singer-songwriter, director, documentarian and Inuk activist Elisapie, whose appearance is set to coincide with the debut of a new song featured in the show, and Bruce McCulloch – known for his work on Kids in the Hall – in the role of Military Mitch, an instructor hired to teach first aid at the community centre.

In celebration of the premiere of season two, CRAFTED on the Catwalk is partnering with North of North to showcase fashion and design from Manitoba, Nunavut, the NWT, Nunatsiavut and Nunavik.

The runway show will take place on September 15 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and will be livestreamed on CBC Manitoba’s YouTube channel. It will be followed by a one-day market on September 16, which will include a pop-up installation of costumes featured on the series.

North of North is co-created and executive produced by Aglok McDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril of Red Marrow Media. They previously co-produced The Grizzlies, Slash/Back and Twice Colonized.

“We’re just excited for people to watch North of North and we can’t wait to see what people think of the new season,” Aglok McDonald said.

Arnaquq-Baril said she’s especially proud of the Inuit writers on the show who stretched their legs this season, as well as the actors who are more emotional and funnier in season two.

“Last year we were all learning how to do a big show. This season, it felt like we know what we’re doing now and we got to really go for it,” Arnaquq-Baril said.

“They just blew it away and it was so much easier to shoot and edit this season because they came prepared. I think it really shows on screen, just the way you fall in love with them in season one and want to be in their friend group, it’s even more in season two. I’m so excited for people to see it.”

Cabin Radio spoke with Aglok McDonald and Arnaquq-Baril about their creative partnership, the success of season one of North of North, showcasing the Arctic on the silver screen, and what viewers can expect from season two.

This interview was recorded on August 25, 2026. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Emily Blake: What can fans expect from season two of the series?

Stacey Aglok McDonald: Definitely another side of Ice Cove that we haven’t seen yet before. We’re coming into Ice Cove in deep winter, not the beautiful spring that we saw in season one, but we get a hearty, deep, deep cold winter. Siaja is still as messy, but as lovable as ever.

In season one, we saw her blow up her life and with that comes the adrenaline, the excitement, the chaos and the mistakes, and trying to find your footing. In season two, we meet Siaja a few months into that initial blowing up of her life, and she kind of has to put her head down and get to work and figure out what kind of life she actually wants now and it’s not easy. She knows that she wants the best for her life and her daughter’s life and the life of her community and with that comes a lot of hijinks, a lot more mistakes and a lot of funny stuff.

Since you’ve created this show, it’s really taken off not only in Canada but across the world. It’s gotten all these awards. What has it been like seeing the success of this show you’ve created?

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril: I think we were buried in starting to create season two as season one went to air, so we didn’t really take a break. We’d pop up and do some interviews and events and then we’d get right back nose to the grindstone to make season two. So it took a while for it to really hit us fully how well the show was doing and how much love is out there. We were definitely feeling the love, but I think it took a while for it to really sink in how big it got, which is probably a good thing as you’re dreaming up season two to not get too distracted by the mayhem.

It was so fun and so joyful and rewarding to see all the love coming from all over the world, especially from our home communities. It was just really heartwarming and gratifying to feel like we struck a chord with our own people and northerners all across the Arctic. It definitely took awhile for it to hit us how real it was, how much it was connecting with people all over the world. And as we travel for events and for work to be running into random strangers that are like, “you’re from the North. Have you ever heard of that show? It’s so good. Have you watched it?” It’s been really wonderful.

How have you walked that line of creating this show and writing about the North for both northerners and people not from the North?

Aglok McDonald: Yeah, I mean I won’t lie, it was sometimes a challenge because Alethea and I are Inuit women who grew up in the Arctic, our lives are there. We wanted to create a show that felt uniquely and intensely like the Arctic that we know and love and experience. With that comes a lot of inside jokes and inside information and all of that stuff. We wanted it to definitely feel real to our fellow Inuit from across the Arctic, whether they’re from Greenland, Alaska, Canada. We’re a very vast people that take up a lot of landmass across the Arctic.

But I think that we also had incredible partners. Our networks – APTN, CBC, and Netflix – and our producing partner, who we’ve been working with for the past 15 years, Miranda De Pencier. All of these people and networks read our scripts and give us notes and feedback. Oftentimes we would get a note of like, “we don’t really understand this” or “what is this?” Alethea and I would have to go and take that note away and discuss whether is it OK that people don’t know this? Are we OK to proceed that way and why? And kind of break it down. Other times where it feels really important to us for people to know this, we have to go away and figure out how to organically make it a little bit more clear for outside audiences.

The wonderful thing about making season two is now there is already a basic level of understanding for people who have watched the show by the time they get to season two. So we can start to take things a little bit further and not need a lot of that Arctic 101 concept. So that’s been the really exciting part of growing this world and growing this show, is that the more episodes we get to do and the more time the world gets to spend in the Arctic, the further we get to take these stories and have people be able to follow us and be in it and understand it and just be able to enjoy it.

One cool thing about the show is there’s both professional actors in it, but it also involves community members. What has that been like working with both actors and community members who maybe have never acted before or been on screen before?

Arnaquq-Baril: It’s really fun to bring our community into the show, both on screen and behind the scenes working on our crew. It can be a challenge at times. We’ve got to integrate these really experienced crew members from the south and actors from the south and have them engage, ideally seamlessly, with our community, and sometimes that’s a challenge. But it’s been so, so worth it.

We just knew there’s so much talent in our community. Stacey and Miranda and I had done a movie called The Grizzlies together, and that was a big challenge to cast teenagers who had never acted before. Using that experience of having traveled all around the North looking for people who had never acted before and turning them into actors, we knew how much talent was out there. That’s been one of the most exciting parts of this journey, is getting to find those hidden gems and to just blow the world away with the amount of talent we have here. I think as a people we care a lot about art and storytelling, so we just knew that there’s going to be a lot of brilliant actors out there and that’s been a real joy to make stars out of these people who were in their home communities doing what they do, making their art, making earrings. This season we have a woman who we really tried to get into season one, but the storylines just didn’t work out right. She’s a caterer day-to-day, but she’s so funny and we’re just really excited to bring her onto the show this year. It’s just been such a joy to shine a light on people like that.

Some of the the new guest stars in season two are Bruce McCulloch and Elisapie. What was it like getting to work with them and feature them on the show?

Aglok McDonald: Bruce is a Canadian icon. I think so many of us grew up watching him. So to have him come on, work with us and on some of the coldest days. We had an incredibly cold shoot in season two and he was just so game, even though it was tough out there. I think that the comedy that he brings to the episode that he’s in and to the character, people are gonna get such a kick out of it.

And then for Elisapie, she was a star amongst the stars. Like Anna Lambe was flabbergasted. I was shy to go and introduce myself to her. She’s a legit star and we were beyond the moon to even be in her presence, let alone have her be on the show with us. She is also kind of the sound of our show. We use a lot of her music. We’re the biggest fans, so we were all fangirling over her, and I can’t wait for everybody to see what she brings to North of North season two.

Arnaquq-Baril: It was so much fun having Elisapie on set. When we’re filming people listening to music, it’s hard to have them sing along because it makes it really hard to edit. If you want to shorten a shot or move it over slightly, then suddenly their mouths won’t be in sync with the words that are being sung. So we had to tell all of the background actors to not sing along, and it was so hard for them to not do that because everyone loves her music so much. It was such a joy.

A lot of the series is filmed in Nunavut. What has that been like getting to film this really big production in Nunavut?

Arnaquq-Baril: Iqaluit, which is where we both live, was kind of used to the two of us doing things around town, but usually on a much, much smaller scale, like five people, 10 people, 20 people. This was a different ball game. So I think the town was like, “what is going on?” in season one because we weren’t allowed to talk about the show much, we kind of had to keep it secret until it was about to launch. People were like, “the whole part of town is shut down? This road is shut down? Am I getting water delivery service today?” There was just a lot of questions and confusion, but people knew it was Stacey and I at the centre of it, so we got a lot of grace from our community and trust, but a little bit of this better be worth it.

So when the show came out and did so well, it was like, “oh, that’s what you guys are doing.” Filming season two was a lot easier because now people know what the show is. It was like, “not only are we going to be OK with you shutting down this road, we’re going to creep up with our cell phones like we’re paparazzi, and try to get photos and share it with my family.” People running up to us beside set, taking selfies with us and with the actors. It was really cute and fun to see so much love from our community while we were filming.

Filming in the North is always a challenge. I’ve been making documentaries for over 20 years now in the North, and shooting in the cold is always hard. But shooting in the cold with southerners, you gotta keep them warm and take care of them, make sure they’re not getting frostbite and this is the coldest year we’ve had in many, many years. So we were literally walking around, checking everyone’s faces, putting our hands on their cheeks and ears when we could see frostbite starting, and getting people to do jumping jacks and not stand still too long so their toes wouldn’t get too cold. It’s kind of like managing kids when you’re outside, but they’re just White southerners. We came together and worked together to keep each other safe and warm and overcome the challenges of shooting in a remote place that’s also freaking, freaking cold.

I’m curious about your creative partnership. You said you’ve worked together on things before. You both co-founded Red Marrow Media. What is it about you two working together that is such magic?

Aglok McDonald: We’re business partners and creative collaborators sure, but we’re also best friends. So even when we’re not working, we’re often hanging out together. Then our hangouts often become a little bit of work because we can’t help but dream and share stories. I think that we excite each other creatively and keep each other on our toes. We’re in alignment 90 percent of the time, and the other 10 percent is us bringing something completely unique and different to the table or a different perspective, and it just twists it enough to keep things fresh or interesting.

For a long part of our careers, Alethea and I were doing things separately. We started off together and then we kind of went off and did our own things. Alethea went on to create some amazing award-winning documentaries that are just incredible and worth the watch if you haven’t seen seen what Alethea has done as a documentary director. And I went off into scripted comedy and did seven seasons of an all Inuktitut language comedy show. But we were always including each other in our work and helping. I’d give her notes on her documentaries or she’d give me notes on my episodes or scripts or whatnot. So we were always on the periphery of each other’s work.

Come 2016 when we started working on the Grizzlies together, I think we just really realized how much we love working together and how it felt like together, what we do could completely blow off the ceiling. It just felt like together we can make the impossible possible. And I think that we’ve done that a little bit with North of North for sure.

Arnaquq-Baril: You know some people, like really good friends, can keep it real with each other and keep each other grounded? We kind of do the opposite, where it’s like, “I have this crazy idea. Like this is crazy, right? I shouldn’t do this.” And instead of being like, “yeah, that’s crazy,” we don’t keep each other grounded, we push each other farther and dream bigger. It’s like let’s not do the grounded thing and do the crazy thing that sounds just about impossible, but if we do it together, maybe we can get there. We enable each other to dream big.

What can people expect from in the future from either the two of you or North of North or media in the North?

Arnaquq-Baril: We have so many ideas, it’s hard to even decide what we want to do next. Of course, we hope for more seasons of North of North, but we do have other projects that we’re dreaming of doing, and it can be really hard to choose which one because we love so many things. Like we love comedy, we love romance, I want to do a fight scene someday. There’s so much that we want to do. But I try not to talk about projects too specifically until they’re more baked, because it’s really easy to get swayed one way or another when you talk about something too early. Rest assured, we’re dreaming up more.

Aglok McDonald: Yeah, we’re we’re not done yet.