The Grand Tour Season 2 will debut on Amazon Prime in December. But fans of “The American” will be disappointed as the driver won’t be a part of the new season.
Top Gear has “The Stig” and when Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond moved into Amazon Prime for The Grand Tour, they came up with “The American”. Their own version of the racing driver designated to push the test cars to their performance limits on the track was the exact opposite of the Stig.
The American’s character was loud, borderline rude, had an opinion on everything and most of those opinions were blunt and in-your-face. While there were fans who loved the not-so-tame racing driver, it seems the driver himself wasn’t so happy with the character development or the lack thereof.
Mike Skinner who got into the racing suit and put on the helmet for season 1 of the Amazon Prime flagship show has now announced on Twitter that he isn’t going to be a part of The Grand Tour Season 2.
FYI I won't be joining the guys on @thegrandtour 2nd season – I wish them all the luck. My character wasn't developed as I was told.
— Mike Skinner (@MSTheGunslinger) November 7, 2017
In his subsequent tweets, Skinner has emphasized how he loved driving the cars which were handed over to him during the show and that he doesn’t really hate the British. The character of “The American” was written in such a way that he despised every non-American car.
No official word is out yet on a new driver taking Mike Skinner’s place in the same role. Amazon Prime hasn’t commented yet on the prospect of the entire act being dropped altogether for the upcoming season. Even the new trailer doesn’t give away anything on this particular aspect.
Guess we’ll have to wait till the December 8, 2017 premiere of the show to find all the answers.