High Potential Cast Teases Steve Howey’s Mysterious Role in Season 2

High Potential fans have to tune in to season 2 to find out more about who Steve Howey is playing — but the cast dropped some teases about his mysterious character.

During Us Weekly‘s set visit to Fox Studios in Los Angeles, the cast hinted at how Howey’s Nick Wagner fits into the equation at Major Crimes.

“We have a new person in town messing with the lives of the people here at the precinct. There’s a new sheriff in town,” Judy Reyes, who plays Selena, teased. “I think that creates all kinds of friction and competition and complexity in terms of relationships — especially where Selena Soto is involved because she’s used to being in charge.”

Reyes noted that Wagner’s introduction will greatly influence Selena’s arc.

“Steve Howey’s character is really turned on by this group of people, and he wants to be part of it so bad,” she shared. “He continues to inject himself into the environment, and it creates a little drama.”

High Potential, which premiered in September 2024, follows a high-potential intellectual named Morgan (Kaitlin Olson) who teams up with the LAPD to help solve murders. She gets paired up with Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), who is initially skeptical about how Morgan can assist the Major Crimes unit but ultimately starts to rely on her.

Raising the stakes on screen for season 2 has led to some new faces — including Howey joining the show as a recurring cast member and Mekhi Phifer, whose character’s name hasn’t even been publicly announced yet.

While Howey also spoke to Us, viewers will have to wait a little longer for his insight. The actor is joining season 2 of High Potential as “a savvy political animal who knows how to wear an expensive suit and oozes effortless charm.”

According to the official character description, Howey’s character, Nick, is “a guy who can launch a million fundraisers with his smile” and “has disruptor tenacity and likes thinking outside the box” like Morgan. “He has a way of putting himself right in the middle of the action … whether he’s wanted there or not,” the description continues.

Us managed to get some fun highlights about Howey’s addition to the cast with Deniz Akdeniz, who plays Oz, joking he “requested not to be in shots with Steve because he’s so tall and it makes me look very short.”

Akdeniz was excited for some fresh faces in season 2.

“Because of the wrenches their characters put into the story lines and into the dynamic here of that family that we established at the precinct in the first season, there is more conflict and more things to play with,” he continued. “We’ve been doing this for a whole season and they’re coming in and we are really lucky that they’re so lovely.”

High Potential returns to ABC Tuesday, September 16, at 10 p.m. ET before streaming the next day on Hulu.