Blood & Treasure (TV Series)

**Blood & Treasure** is an American action adventure television series created by Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia that premiered on May 21, 2019 on CBS. On June 26th, 2019, it was announced that the series had been renewed for a second season. **Season 2** of the Paramount+ original series was originally supposed to premiered on July 17, 2022. However, by Friday July 15, 2022, the first two episodes dropped early on July 16, 2022.

## Synopsis

*An antiquities expert teams up with an art thief to catch a terrorist who funds his attacks using stolen artifacts.*

## Cast and characters

### Starring:

* Matt Barr as Danny McNamara, a former FBI agent who now works as a lawyer specializing in repatriating stolen art.
* Sofia Pernas as Lexi Vaziri, a thief and con woman partnered with Danny despite their tortured past. Her mother was secretly a member of the Brotherhood of Serapis and a descendant of Cleopatra.
* James Callis as Simon Hardwick (né Karim Farouk), an international smuggler who was rescued by Danny after being kidnapped by Farouk and now seeks to uncover the secrets behind the Brotherhood. He later kills Hegazi, allegedly as revenge for the torture he suffered at his hands, but really to keep Hegazi from revealing that he wasn't really Farouk. In the season finale, it is revealed that he was the real Karim Farouk all along, as well as Reece's illegitimate son.
* Katia Winter as Gwen Karlsson (Season 1), an Interpol agent assigned to the Farouk case.
* Michael James Shaw as Aiden Shaw (né Dwayne Coleman), an arms dealer with ties to Farouk. He reluctantly assists Danny and Lexi at first, but eventually develops an acceptable working relationship with them.
* Oded Fehr as Karim Farouk (né Rasheed Hegazi) (season 1), an Egyptian terrorist leader who was seemingly killed in a drone attack, but somehow survived and now seeks to steal ancient artifacts so he can weaponize them. He is shot and killed by Hardwick, who is revealed to be the real Farouk.
* Alicia Coppola as Dr. Ana Castillo (season 1), Danny's mentor who is regarded as the world's foremost expert on Cleopatra. She is murdered near the end of the first season by Jay Reece after uncovering the connection between him and Karim Farouk.
* Mark Gagliardi as Father Chuck Donnelly, an old friend of Danny's who works as a priest in the Vatican foreign ministry.
* Michelle Lee as Violet (season 2), Lexi's former partner in crime.

### Special Guest Star

* John Larroquette as Jay Reece (season 1), a billionaire and father figure to Danny who oversees his effort to find Castillo and stop Farouk's plan. It is later revealed that, not only was he responsible for framing Danny's father for art theft, but Farouk is Reece's son, having been abandoned after Reece had a fling with a woman named Zara Farouk. He also murdered Dr. Castillo after she discovered the link between him and Farouk.

### Guest Starring:

* Antonio Cupo as Captain Bruno Fabi (season 1), an officer in the Carabinieri TPC, and secretly a member of the Brotherhood of Serapis. He dies after being shot while helping Danny and Lexi.
* Tony Nash as Omar (season 1), Farouk's second-in-command until he is killed after surrendering to the police.
* Ali Hassan as Taj bin Yusef, a member of Farouk's organization who takes over after he is killed.
* Anna Silk as Roarke, an ex-black ops agent, secretly hired by Reece, who goes after Danny and Lexi.
* Victoria Diamond as Kate Reece (season 2), Jay Reece's daughter and Danny's former fiancée.
* Ron Yuan as Batu/The Great Khan (season 2), a terrorist leader searching for the spirit banner of Genghis Khan
* Paget Brewster as Sister Lisa

### Co-Starring:

* Chew Connor Sze Yuan as Hahn (Season 2)

## Production

### Development

On November 30, 2017, it was announced that CBS had given a series order to *Blood & Treasure*, a new television series created and written by Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia. The series order was reportedly for a first season of thirteen episodes in which Federman and Scaia will also executive produce alongside Taylor Elmore, Ben Silverman, Marc Webb, and Mark Vlasic. Webb is also set to direct the series as well. Production companies involved in the series included CBS Television Studios. On March 26, 2019, it was announced that the series is set to premiere on May 21, 2019.

On June 26, 2019, CBS renewed the series for a second season. On August 22, 2019, Stephen Scaia, mentioned he was scouting some cool new locations for Season 2. Then, by October 11, 2019 Scaia confirmed that production for Season 2 began in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

On May 17, 2022, it was reported that the series is moving from CBS to Paramount+ and premiered on July 17, 2022 with two new episodes and the rest debuting on a weekly basis.

### Casting

On March 12, 2018, it was announced that Katia Winter, Michael James Shaw, and James Callis had been cast in series regular roles. On May 18, 2018, it was reported that Sofia Pernas had joined the main cast in the lead female role. On June 15, 2018, it was announced that Matt Barr had been cast in the series' lead male role. On July 25, 2018, it was reported that Alicia Coppola had joined the main cast. On August 28, 2018, it was announced that Anna Silk had been cast in a recurring role.

On January 31, 2020, Paget Brewster was cast in a recurring capacity for the second season.

### Filming

Principal photography for the first season took place in the summer of 2018 in Montreal, Canada, Rome, Turin, Venice, Italy, Gressoney Saint-Jean, Vatican City, Marrakesh, and Tangier, Morocco.

The museum seen in the season finale "The Revenge of Farouk" was previously used as a set in the series premiere "The Curse of Cleopatra, as well as the fourth episode "The Secret of Macho Grande" for the Nazi Lab.

Filming for the second season began in October 17, 2019.

On July 15, 2022, it was revealed by Federman that due to standards and practices, most of the blood they use on the series remains hidden.

## Trivia

* On June 11th, 2019, it was confirmed that the Serapis medallion very differently but the art department's research showed the semi-translucent material is more of what it would have been made out of at the time. Then they decided to backlight all of them for a cool effect.
* On July 2, 2019, it was revealed that some locations around North Africa (i.e. particularly Tangier, Morocco), along with help from the production design team doubled as Cuba.
* On July 30, 2019, Stephen Scaia revealed that Montreal, Canada was used as location to emulate Paris, France.
* As of May 17, 2022, Season 1 is available on Blueray to purchase for $39.99 USD.
* Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Season 2 was supposed to premiere sometime in the summer of 2020.
* On July 15, 2022, Matthew Federman, the co-creator of the series stated that with Matt Barr being the lead on *Walker: Independence* on the CW, they'd cross that bridge if they ever came to it but since it’s the same corporate umbrella, Federman believes Barr could still be able to do both shows.
* On July 18, 2022, due to CBS News’ coverage of the House select committee’s public hearings on the Jan. 6 terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol bumped *Big Brother*‘s first official eviction of Season 24 was rescheduled. Instead, the network chose to have what it calls “a one-time special showing” of Blood & Treasure‘s Season 2 premiere episode, which debuted Sunday on its new home, on Paramount+.

## Gallery

### Promotional stills

Season 2 PosterS2 Title CardNow StreamingDropped early on Paramount+
### Trailers & Miscellaneous Videos

Blood & Treasure Season 1 Trailer - Rotten Tomatoes TVBlood & Treasure PromoBlood & Treasure - Cast from CBS - Talks at GoogleBlood & TreasureNew CBS Show 'Blood & Treasure' A Fun, Globe-Trotting Adventure'Blood & Treasure' Star Finds Her Role Is A True GiftBlood and Treasure The Curse of Cleopatra Parts I and II Sneak PeekBlood and Treasure - 1x01 - 1x02 Sneak Peek Clip 2 "The Curse of Cleopatra - Parts I and II"Blood & Treasure 1x03 Sneak Peek Clip 1 "Code of the Hawaladar"Blood & Treasure 1x03 Sneak Peek Clip 2 "Code of the Hawaladar"Blood and Treasure 1x03 Promo "Code of the Hawaladar" PreviewBlood and Treasure 1x04 Sneak Peek 1 "The Secret of Macho"Blood and Treasure 1x04 Sneak Peek 2 "The Secret of Macho"Blood and Treasure 1x04 Promo "The Secret of Macho Grande"Blood and Treasure 1x04 Sneak Peek 4 "The Secret of Macho"Blood and Treasure 1x04 Sneak Peek 5 "The Secret of Macho"Blood and Treasure 1x10 Promo "The Wages of Vengeance"Blood and Treasure 1x12 Promo "Legacy of the Father"Blood & Treasure New PromoBlood and Treasure 1x13 Sneak Peek Clip 1 "The Revenge of Farouk" Season FinaleBlood and Treasure 1x13 Sneak Peek Clip 2 "The Revenge of Farouk" Season FinaleBlood & Treasure - Official Trailer - Paramount+
## External links

* Blood & Treasure on the Internet Movie Database
* Blood & Treasure (@bloodandtreasure) on Instagram
* Blood & Treasure on Wikipedia
* Blood & Treasure (@TreasurePPlus) on Twitter
* Watch *Blood & Treasure* on Paramount+

## References

1. ↑ ‘Elementary’, ‘Instinct’, New ‘Blood & Treasure’ Get CBS Premiere Dates - Deadline
2. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’ Renewed For Season 2 by CBS - Deadline
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Blood & Treasure Season 2 Finally Has a Premiere Date, Moves to Paramount+ - TVLine
4. ↑ Matthew Federman July 16 IG Post - Instagram
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Paget Brewster Joins ‘Blood & Treasure’ - Deadline
6. ↑ Blood & Treasure Season 2 Finally Has a Premiere Date, Moves to Paramount+ - TVLine
7. ↑ Episode Listings for Blood & Treasure S2 - The Futon Critic
8. ↑ CBS Gives Straight-to-Series Order to Summer Adventure Series ‘Blood and Treasure’ - Variety
9. ↑ ‘Blood and Treasure’ Drama From ‘Limitless’ Team Goes Straight to Series at CBS - Hollywood Reporter
10. ↑ Action-Adventure Series Blood & Treasure Coming To CBS Summer 2019 - CBS
11. ↑ ‘Elementary’, ‘Instinct’, New ‘Blood & Treasure’ Get CBS Premiere Dates - Deadline
12. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’ Renewed for Season 2 at CBS - Hollywood Reporter
13. ↑ Stephen Scaia Aug. 22, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
14. ↑ Stephen Scaia Oct. 11, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
15. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’: Katia Winter, Michael James Shaw & James Callis Join CBS’ Action-Adventure Series - Deadline
16. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’: Sofia Pernas Cast As Female Lead In CBS Action Summer Series - Deadline
17. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’: Matt Barr To Star In CBS Action Summer Series - Deadline
18. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’: Alicia Coppola Joins As Series Regular In CBS Action Summer Series - Deadline
19. ↑ ‘Blood & Treasure’: Anna Silk To Recur In CBS Action Summer Series - Deadline
20. ↑ Behind The Scenes: The Making Of Action-Adventure TV Series Blood & Treasure - CBS
21. ↑ “Blood & Treasure”, for the Canadian TV series, casting starts in the Valley - Aostasera
22. ↑ Stephen Scaia Aug 6, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
23. ↑ Matthew Federman Oct. 17, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
24. ↑ Matthew Federman July 15, 2022 Tweet - Twitter
25. ↑ Matthew Federman June 11th, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
26. ↑ Stephen Scaia July 2, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
27. ↑ Stephen July 30, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
28. ↑ Blood and Treasure: Season One Blueray - Amazon
29. ↑ Stephen Scaia Aug. 6, 2019 Tweet - Twitter
30. ↑ Matthew Federman July 15, 2022 Tweet - Twitter
31. ↑ CBS Moves Big Brother Eviction, Will Broadcast Blood & Treasure Encore - TVLine