Vanessa Williams and more join Elsbeth season 2 (Watch the trailer!)

Elsbeth is back as the new trailer for season 2 shows some of the big-time guest stars our new favorite investigator runs into! 

The series was the surprise hit of the 2024 TV season, and it sees Carrie Preston reprising her Emmy-winning role as Elsbeth Tascioni, the wildly eccentric attorney from The Good Wife and The Good Fight. Now in New York City to aid the NYPD, Elsbeth soon gets involved in murder investigations where her quirky mind lets her figure out clues. 

Season 1 had the overall arc that Elsbeth had been secretly sent to investigate Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) for possible corruption. It turned out Wagner was innocent, and it was his supposed friend who was using his name to commit crimes. The captain wasn't happy about this and briefly wanted Elsbeth gone.

However, Wagner realized Elsbeth was helpful in cases and let her stay as a police consultant. He also agreed to help her sidekick Blanke (Carra Patterson) try to become a detective. 

Season 2 will keep to the show's unique formula that the audience sees who the killer is from the start and then how Elsbeth figures it out. And while Season 1 had some big guest stars, it's going to be better in this second season!

"As Season 2 begins, just as Elsbeth Tascioni begins to settle into her new life and career in New York, mistakes she made in Chicago come back to haunt her. Officer Blanke (Carra Patterson) and Captain Wagner (Wendell Pierce) face challenges of their own as the precinct recovers from last year's unpleasantness and is shaken up by a meddlesome new lieutenant. Meanwhile, the team is thrown into more odd slices of elite New York as they face off with people who think they can get away with anything."

Who's coming in Elsbeth season 2?

It's already confirmed that Nathan Lane will guest star in the season premiere as an opera lover who goes to extreme methods when someone's cell phone interrupts a performance. The Tony and Emmy-winning star should be fantastic, but the trailer shows the other guest stars showing up. 

Per Deadline, Pamela Adlon will play Chef Veev, of one of New York's hottest restaurants whose temper erupts into murder when a staff member's side hustle blows a major deal. That puts Elsbeth in the world of fancy cooking. 

Vanessa Williams of Ugly Betty fame plays "the chic and ultra-wealthy VIP member of an exclusive jewelry store" who's hiding the fact she's broke. Roselyn thus organizes a robbery ring of fellow VIPs but when one member threatens to expose them, it becomes deadly. 

Comedian Rob Riggle is Neal Dorsey, "a billionaire who made his fortune as a paint manufacturer but is considered "uncool" by his fellow billionaires." When one dies in a freak accident while training for a space mission, Elsbeth wonders if it was murder. 

Finally, Brittany O'Grady is a former child star and current tabloid party girl, Mackenzie "Mac" Andrews, who wakes up on Halloween to wonder if she committed a murder. This looks like a spin on the usual formula as not only Elsbeth and the viewers but O'Grady herself wonders what really happened. 

It's likely we'll be getting some other big-time guest stars and the trailer shows Elsbeth still with her unique attitude settling into New York. Blanke remains her faithful sidekick and we get the pack of detectives thinking they're on a different CBS show. Put it all together and Elsbeth season 2 looks to be a wonderful continuation of one of CBS' best new mystery shows.

Elsbeth season 2 premieres Thursday October 17 at 10/9c on CBS.