The Rig's Martin Compston & Iain Glen on taking the TV thriller to the Arctic Circle - without leaving Leith

The new series of The Rig will be set in the aftermath of a devastating tsunami

When the stars of Scotland's North Sea-set supernatural thriller The Rig filmed their final scenes for the first series, there were two unanswered questions hanging in the air.

The actors playing the surviving crew members rescued from the stricken Kinloch Bravo rig had no idea where they were being helicoptered to - or whether they would even get the chance to find out.

Iain Glen and Martin Compston will be returning in the second season of The Rig. | Amazon Prime Video

But a second season was given the green light within weeks of The Rig’s worldwide launch on the Prime Video streaming service - and within months the actors were being asked to imagine they were in the Arctic Circle.

The new series of the “eco-thriller has reunited first season stars including Iain Glen, Martin Compston, Iain Glen, Emily Hampshire, Rochenda Sandall, Molly Vevers and Owen Teale.

Rochenda Sandall will be starring in the second series of The Rig. | Amazon Prime Video

Compston revealed the actors were kept in the dark over who would survive the tsunami, which swept across the North Sea, engulfing the Kinloch Bravo and heading towards the Scottish coast, at the end of the first series to be made at a new film studio complex in Leith Docks.

He said: "We all knew that whoever was getting in a helicopter would be surviving for a second series, but we didn't know who until we got the last scripts.

The new series of The Rig, which is set in the Arctic Circle, will be launching on 2 January. | Amazon Prime Video

"We had to wait to see how the show did before we knew if there was going to be another series. We were all sitting by our phones, but it was a great feeling when they told us we'd be going back to the studio.

“We were arguing about where we wanted the crew to land, but it ended up a bit further north than we were hoping for."

Writer David Macpherson, who wrote the idea for The Rig from his flat in Portobello, a few miles from FirstStage Studios, always intended to expand the world of the show to the Arctic Circle if he got the chance of another series.

Martin Compston will be returning in the new series of The Rig. | Amazon Prime Video

The focus of the new six-part series, which launches on January 2, is a prototype rig that powerful energy company Pictor - which is battling to cover up its part in the tsunami - has been using to carry out deep-sea mining tests.

Glen, whose character Magnus led the Kinloch Bravo crew, said: "When I first read that The Rig was set in the North Sea, I thought I could get my head around it. When we got to the end of the first season, I just could not see where it was going to go. It's gone to another world I just couldn't see coming.

Emily Hampshire and Iain Glen will be returning in the second series of The Rig. | Amazon Prime Video

"The first series was about a group of people being trapped and attacked in a world that they knew. Now they are in a much bigger world, it's a completely alien environment and it’s very disorientating, with the drama leading out onto the ice and into the ocean. Everything feels stepped up in this series."

Although Macpherson and director John Strickland led a production team research trip to Iceland and the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard, the whole series was made in and around the Leith Docks studio complex.

Emily Hampshire will be returning in the new series of The Rig. | Amazon Prime Video

Around 150 cast and crew were involved in the 16-week shoot, with a further 400-strong team working on visual effects which took around a year to complete.

Martin Compston, Emily Hampshire and Iain Glen launching the new season of The Rig in Edinburgh, where the supernatural thriller was made. Picture: Jamie Simpson / Prime Video | Jamie Simpson

Edinburgh-born Glen said: "Over the course of the first season and certainly throughout the second season, the penny has fully dropped about what we can manifest in this brilliant studio in Leith.

“There's very little in this second series that we could have done outside the studio. The way that they could manifest these frozen landscapes and the ocean seabed was quite extraordinary.

Iain Glen and Martin Compston return in the new series of The Rig. | Prime Video

"It sounds paradoxical, but you can actually liberate a drama by going into a studio given the possibilities of what you can create now. I'm really proud that we are now able to generate this scale of drama in a studio in my home town."

Compston said: "What they've pulled off at the end of this series is nothing short of spectacular. It's breath-taking. I actually got quite emotional watching. The special effects are sensational.”

The new series of The Rig will be launched on Prime Video on 2 January. | Prime Video

The series was made against a backdrop of real-life incidents and controversies, including the implosion on the Titan submarine that was heading to the wreck of the Titanic, Norway's deep-sea mining plans and devastating flooding.

Glen said: "David Macpherson is really bold and brave as a writer. He asks you to listen and his scripts are very well researched.

"The Rig is a piece of entertainment and a thriller. But if it feels very plausible and there is real jeopardy it adds to the whole feel of the show. The way Pictor goes about it and what they are after in this series feels very real."

Hampshire, who plays Pictor scientist Rose, said: "Last season, you felt like you were trapped in a space where the danger was the people around you.

"This season, it felt like you were lost in a space where nature was the thing that could turn. The vastness of the deep sea and that Arctic whiteout makes you register how tiny you are in the grand scheme of things."

Sandall, who plays medic Cat, said: "The new series feels completely different to the first one. We get to see much deeper relationships between the characters. They hardly really knew each other before, even though they worked together all the time. Their relationships have had to change through emergency and devastation.

"Things have certainly gone up a notch. There are real parallels and a reality check with what is going on in the world we are living in at the moment.”

Compston highlighted how the return of The Rig had provided a huge boost to Scotland’s screen sector at a time of a downturn in the UK-wide industry.

"The studio is a wonderful facility to have in Scotland,” he said. “When I was growing up in this industry, people would shoot exterior scenes here and then f*** off down south. Now they stay here to make the whole show.

"It's brilliant for the economy, to keep Scottish crews working and for young talent coming into the industry. What a place to learn.

“I think The Rig can go on and on. We have got an in-built audience from the first series. I feel the new series is a real step up from the first one. If we can bring that audience with us, I think we'll be on to a winner."