Why did Rivals recast Rupert’s ex-wife Helen? The real reason behind Hayley Atwell’s appearance

Are you ready to head back to Rutshire? Rivals is back with a bang (and plenty of bonks) for its second season on Disney+. The new season reunites us with all the beloved characters from season one, including Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell), Taggie O’Hara (Bella Maclean), Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams), Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner) and resident villain Tony Baddingham, played by David Tennant.

But one person who looks quite different in season two is Helen, aka Rupert’s ex-wife and mother of his two children. So why has the actress changed?

In season one we had one scene with Rupert’s ex-wife Helen, who was played by Anastasia Griffith. She had a short scene when Taggie goes to visit her and begs her to call Rupert and tell him not to go on her father’s interview show.

Disney+

However, now that the show is back for season two, Helen is no longer being plated by Anastasia. Instead Hayley Atwell is taking on the iconic role of Rupert’s ex-wife.

Rivals‘ executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins revealed the real reason Hayley is now playing the character is because she wanted to join the show and the Rivals team wanted to find a way to delve more into Rupert’s past.

“Hayley wanted to join the show. We wanted to look at that character and make more of her and use her to dig more into Rupert’s past,” he told TV Insider. “We loved Anastasia’s performance in Series 1, absolutely, but we felt we wanted to have someone that was more known to American audiences to be put into the show. So, Hayley, known very much for Marvel by the US, came to us and was brilliant.”

Treadwell-Collins also went onto reveal the character of Helen is crucial in the development of Taggie and Rupert’s relationship, as she acts as a sort of warning for what Taggie’s future could look like.

While Helen is only just coming into focus now in season two, in Jilly Cooper’s original set of novels about Rutshire, Helen is a prominent figure.

In the first book Riders, Helen is an American book editor who marries Rupert but she has an affair with his rival Jake Lovell. Rupert is also unfaithful to Helen (shocker).

Helen doesn’t feature heavily in the novel Rivals, but we do know she goes onto marry Malise Gordon, who was once Rupert’s show-jumping mentor. In the new Disney+ series he’s played by Rupert Everett.

Rivals season two is available on Prime Video

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