Well, it doesn’t look like Em (Arielle Kebbel) and Will (Adam Demos) will find their way back to each other, at least onscreen. Rescue: HI-Surf will not be returning for a second season.
The Fox drama follows the personal and professional lives of the lifeguards who patrol and protect the North Shore of O’ahu, the most famous and dangerous stretch of coastline in the world. Read on for everything we know about the show’s future and what would have happened in a second season.
Is Rescue: HI-Surf renewed for Season 2?
No, Fox canceled the drama on Wednesday, May 7.
When TV Insider spoke with creator Matt Kester in March 2025 about the Season 1 finale, he’d been hopeful the show would continue.
“I feel good. I’m always positive, and we have a ton more stories to tell. I think people are finding the show. I’m really heartened that a ton of people watch the show with their family. That makes me really happy. That was one of my goals, that people can watch the show and enjoy it as an adult, they can enjoy it with their 10-year-old, with their 6-year-old, with their teenager, and there’s kind of something for everybody,” he said. “There’s not a lot of programming like that. And I really feel grateful to Fox, Hulu, [and] Warner Brothers for allowing us to create that kind of show. I think people are still finding it and the people who do find it love it. So hopefully we’ll get a chance to keep going on it.”
Will Rescue: HI-Surf find a new home?
While shows have, in the past, been saved by other networks or streaming services, that won’t be the case here. According to Deadline, studio Warner Bros. Television doesn’t plan to try to do just that.
How did Rescue: HI-Surf end?
Em was offered a job working for a social media platform and tried to get Will to join her, but instead, he decided to head home to Australia. (To be fair, he’d been through a lot, including the end of his engagement due to his affair with Em.) Meanwhile, Sonny (Robbie Magasiva) forced Vince (Moronai Kanekoa) to resign after learning he’d been dealing drugs out of the tower but had to turn to someone shady for help. Plus, Laka (Kekoa Kekumano) was promoted to lieutenant.
What would have happened in Rescue: HI-Surf Season 2?
Creator Matt Kester told TV Insider that they’d “definitely” have had Demos back in Season 2 after the finale aired in March.
When it came to Em and Will’s future, however, that would have been more complicated. “We’re going to have to figure out, what is the special sauce that makes this relationship that they clearly both want, that they clearly both would love to work, how’s that going to happen for them? What’s going to be the thing that forces them together and forces them and everyone else to say, ‘Okay, this is a couple, this is a partnership, and they can make this work together both professionally and personally’?” Kester explained.
He also expected taking that job to have changed Em. She would “be able to come back in a place where she’s feeling a little bit transformed, a little bit empowered, and she’s had some time and a break from Will and time to settle herself a little bit that I think will put her in a new head space when she’s thinking about her relationship with Will,” he shared.
Kainalu (Alex Aiono) and Hina’s (Zoe Cipres) relationship would have also been complicated. “All the cards are out on the table. They realize that they both have feelings for each other and so where’s that going to go?” Kester wondered.
Sonny also would have faced the consequences of what he did regarding Vince.
“What we see in that is this hint that Sonny had to call in a favor from an unsavory character, somebody that he knew from his past,” said Kester. “I think there’ll definitely have to be some kind of, not comeuppance for him, but that’s going to come back. He called in a favor to somebody that you don’t want to owe something to. And so that’ll be something that in Season 2 likely comes back to bite him in some way.”
The creator had also wanted to bring in new characters that would “not only round out the dynamic that we have but complicate it in a way that’s interesting and give some challenges for our characters.”
Who was in the Rescue: HI-Surf cast?
The Fox drama starred Robbie Magasiva (as Sonny), Arielle Kebbel (as Em), Adam Demos (as Will), Kekoa Kekumano (as Laka), Zoe Cipres (as Hina), and Alex Aiono (as Kainalu).
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