The first season of Beast Games, the competition series from YouTube’s top creator MrBeast, started with 2,000 contestants and broke several Guinness world records as Jeffrey Randall Allen walked away with $10 million in prize money.

But for Season 2, MrBeast and his crew realized viewers wanted to know a little more about the contestants that managed to claw their way to the top. So the season, which launched January 7, featured 200 contestants: 100 who were smart and 100 who were strong.

“Very rarely do we turn things down,” Jimmy Donaldson, otherwise known as MrBeast, told Deadline during a discussion at Deadline Studio at Prime Experience. “Everything in my body said, let’s go to 10,000 contestants. But listening to the feedback, obviously people wanted to know more about them, and so we toned it down; people seemed to love those big changes.”

Donaldson was joined on the panel by Beast Games co-creator, executive producer and director Tyler Conklin; casting director Katy Wallin; and executive producer Michael H. Miller. Check out the panel video below and scroll down for photos from the event.

“We definitely learned that people care a lot about the contestants and building character development,” Conklin added. “This season wasn’t necessarily building something bigger or even [having] more contestants, which is something we usually do, it was more focused on telling the stories of the specific contestants that we casted.”

Case in point was the relationship between Jim Bent and Monika Ronk. The pair, who both made the top 10, got together on the show and also jokingly had a Beast City Wedding.

“The whole Jim and Monika thing… obviously never in my wildest dreams did I think that was going to be part of the show,” added Donaldson. “I don’t even know how you plan for that.”

Wallin revealed that they received 400,000 submissions, four times the amount from Season 1. “It was a more complex casting process, because we did a lot of verification,” she said. “It wasn’t enough to say I have a 160 IQ, the same as Einstein, we had to actually have them prove it.”

Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and Katy Wallin at the Deadline Hollywood Beast Games Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2026 held at Hollywood Legion Post 43 Theater on March 22, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

Michael H. Miller at the Deadline Hollywood Beast Games Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2026 held at Hollywood Legion Post 43 Theater on March 22, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

Tyler Conklin at the Deadline Hollywood Beast Games Portrait Studio at Prime Experience 2026 held at Hollywood Legion Post 43 Theater on March 22, 2026 in Los Angeles, California.

The second season of the Prime Video series was filmed in North Carolina, Las Vegas, Fiji (as part of a Survivor crossover) and Saudi Arabia, which is part of their “spectacle” approach.

The crew are currently in production on Season 3. “In Season 1, we’re very proud of how big and grand everything was, and in Season 2 we’re really proud of telling stories,” said Conklin. “Merging those two things together and then taking it up a notch is the best way to describe [Season 3].”

Last year, Donaldson joked that he’d love to do 10 seasons of Beast Games. Now, he’s aiming to triple that.

“Look at Jeff Probst, what’s he like in his 50s? He’s still going. Yeah, I got plenty of time,” he said.

For more Deadline Studio at Prime Experience content, click here.

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