WGN AMERICA ANNOUNCES RETURN OF "MANHATTAN," TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13 AT 9 PM ET/8 PM CT

SEASON TWO IMAGES OF CRITICALLY LAUDED DRAMA FROM LIONSGATE, SKYDANCE AND TRIBUNE STUDIOS RELEASED

Renowned Ensemble Cast Includes John Benjamin Hickey, Olivia Williams, Ashley Zukerman, Rachel Brosnahan, William Petersen, Katja Herbers, Christopher Denham, Harry Lloyd, Michael Chernus, Mamie Gummer and Griffin Dunne

(John Benjamin Hickey as Frank Winter. Photo Credit: Michael Lavine/WGN America)

(L to R: Olivia Williams, Harry Lloyd, Katja Herbers, John Benjamin Hickey, Christopher Denham, Rachel Brosnahan, Ashley Zukerman, Michael Chernus. Photo Credit: Michael Lavine/WGN America)

LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2015 - WGN America announced today that the highly anticipated second season of its critically praised drama "Manhattan" is set for Tuesday, October 13 at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 8:00 p.m. CT. In addition, WGN America released the first photos from the second season, which explores the events leading up to one of the most defining moments in history: the Trinity test, marking the first detonation of an atomic weapon, which took place on July 16, 1945 -- 70 years ago this Thursday.

From creator and writer Sam Shaw ("Masters of Sex") and Emmy(R) Award-winning director Thomas Schlamme ("The West Wing"), "Manhattan," hailed as "immediately impressive" by the Wall Street Journal and "absolutely stellar" by Entertainment Weekly, follows the tangled lives of the residents of Los Alamos, New Mexico as they race to detonate the world's first nuclear bomb.

The new season of "Manhattan" will once again take viewers inside the world's most secretive city where, locked away, the scientists and their families surrender their freedoms, compromise their marriages, and even sacrifice their sanity to end one war and usher in another - the Cold War waiting just over the atomic horizon - all while embedded spies and a climate of paranoia threaten to destroy the project from within.

"Manhattan" stars Emmy-nominated actor John Benjamin Hickey ("The Big C," "The Good Wife") as Frank Winter, a brilliant and unrelenting physicist who was the driving force behind the design of the world's first weapon of mass destruction and who's now beginning to question how it will be used; Olivia Williams ("Rushmore," "The Ghost Writer") as his wife, Liza Winter, an accomplished scientist in her own right who battles the Hill's draconian security state presided over by Col. Emmett Darrow, the new ranking military officer played by Golden Globe-nominated actor William Petersen ("CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"); and Ashley Zukerman ("Rush") and Rachel Brosnahan ("House of Cards," "The Dovekeepers"), who play Charlie and Abby Isaacs, a young couple who both embrace and struggle with their unexpected new power on The Hill. The ensemble cast also features Katja Herbers ("The Americans," "De Storm") as the tough, witty and bright Dr. Helen Prins, the only female physicist working on the Project; Christopher Denham ("Argo," "Shutter Island") as Jim Meeks, the principled, fastidious and deeply loyal physicist recruited by Frank Winter; Harry Lloyd ("The Theory of Everything," "Game of Thrones") as the polished, privileged British physicist Paul Crosley; and Michael Chernus ("Orange Is The New Black," "The Big C") as the sweet and affable scientist Louis "Fritz" Fedowitz - one of the few whose personal life has flourished in New Mexico's city of secrets. Mamie Gummer ("The Good Wife") joins the season two cast as Nora, a member of the Women's Army Corps who undergoes a political awakening when she's assigned to a post at Los Alamos, and Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor/director/producer Griffin Dunne ("Dallas Buyers Club," "After Hours") will play Woodrow Lorentzen, a tenacious and self-destructive newspaper reporter who finds his way inside the gates at Los Alamos and discovers not only the scoop of a lifetime, but a chance to turn his life around.

Filmed on location in Santa Fe, NM, "Manhattan" is produced by Lionsgate Television, Skydance Television and Tribune Studios. The series is executive produced by Sam Shaw, Thomas Schlamme, Dustin Thomason, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Marcy Ross.

Follow "Manhattan" on Twitter @ManhattanWGNA. "Like" the series on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ManhattanWGNA, and join the discussion with #manhattanwgna and #Fanhattans. See photos on Instagram by following @ManhattanWGNA and videos at www.youtube.com/ManhattanWGNA.

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About WGN America and Tribune Studios

WGN America, the flagship entertainment network of Tribune Media Company (NYSE: TRCO), is nationally distributed in 73 million homes via cable, satellite and telco, with entertainment programming including the original, scripted series "Salem," "Manhattan," "Underground," "Outsiders" and "Ten Commandments," along with first-run syndicated series, blockbuster movies and live sports. Through Tribune Studios, the creative development arm of Tribune Media, original content is produced for WGN America and Tribune local stations nationwide. Follow the network on Twitter @wgnamerica. For additional information, please visit www.wgnamerica.com.

About Lionsgate Television

Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms, video games and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has more than 30 television shows on over 20 different networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, , the broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show, the hit series Orange is the New Black, the critically-acclaimed drama Manhattan and the breakout series The Royals. .

About Skydance

Skydance is a diversified media company founded by David Ellison in 2010 to create elevated, event-level entertainment for global audiences. The Company brings to life stories of immersive worlds across platforms, including feature film, television, gaming and digital. Among Skydance's blockbuster and award-winning feature film successes are True Grit, Star Trek Into Darkness, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, GI JOE - Retaliation, Jack Reacher, World War Z and Terminator Genisys. Skydance's upcoming film slate features Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation in 2015 and Geostorm, Star Trek 3 and Jack Reacher 2 in 2016. Skydance Television's original scripted series include the critically acclaimed Manhattan on WGN and Grace and Frankie on Netflix.