The second season of the Canadian science fiction–fantasy television series Sanctuary premiered on Space in Canada and on Syfy in the United States on October 9, 2009, and concluded on the same channel on January 15, 2010 after 13 episodes.

Amanda Tapping, Robin Dunne, Emilie Ullerup, Ryan Robbins, Agam Darshi and Christopher Heyerdahl are billed in the opening credits as the main cast.

The producers wanted to expand on the Sanctuary Network by including episodes where the team visit some of their international sites as opposed to only mentioning them.

The introduction of the new character Kate Freelander (Darshi) was also met with mixed reactions, while there was an outpouring of fans against Ashley's demise.

Amanda Tapping returns as series protagonist Helen Magnus, a 158-year-old English scientist who runs the Sanctuary Network.

[11] Christopher Heyerdahl portrays two characters: Bigfoot, an abnormal who works in the Sanctuary, and John Druitt, Magnus' former fiancé and father to Ashley.

[13] Agam Darshi joined the cast as Kate Freelander, described by Syfy as "a swindler, con artist and thief who finds herself in an uneasy alliance with Dr. Magnus after her business relationship with the Cabal goes sour.

Kindler felt this development was a bold choice, but also believed his vampirism was the least interesting character trait against being a genius and having electricity-based powers.

[17] Like the first season, there were instances where Young was unavailable to shoot some of his scenes due to theatre commitments, so he was replaced by a body double.

[11] Robert Lawrenson made a recurring appearance as Declan McRae, the head of the London Sanctuary following the death of James Watson in the season one finale.

Cunningham was offered a role because he was long-time friends with some of the crew members, as is the same case when it came to casting Anne Marie Loder, wife of director Peter DeLuise, as Rachel.

Balinder Johal played a cult member; she was the first person to audition for the part, and the producers cast her as she was spiritual, calm, and soft in her appearance.

[23] The producers were hoping to cast David Hewlett, another Stargate alum, in a guest spot; however, this was met by scheduling issues, as he was shooting a film at the time.

"[22] Syfy officially announced the commissioning of a second season of Sanctuary in November 2008 due to the ratings success of the pilot episode, which totalled over three million viewers.

Andrea Gorfolova, Carrie Mudd and Keith Beedie join creator Damian Kindler, director Martin Wood, and actress Amanda Tapping as the show's executive producers.

[12] The second season saw the introduction of a writing team; Sara Cooper, Alan McCullough and James Thorpe were hired as additional writers to Kindler.

[26][28] Following the cliffhanger of the first-season finale, Kindler worked to figure out how to conclude the story and managed to write the outlines of the first two episodes in two days.

[14] "Eulogy" was conceived as an important episode in the lives of the main characters following the aftermath of "End of Nights", as well as dealing with the loss of Ashley.

[30] The producers were originally hesitant in including "Hero" as the fourth episode, as it was considered lighter in tone as Magnus was trying to get over Ashley's death from "Eulogy".

Described as the "darkest, scariest, creepiest episode ever" by Tapping, it also featured scenes Kindler was never comfortable with, and did not want to show again, including the assault of naked women, and child killings.

In addition, they noticed a concert hall and took pictures of one of its angles as they deem the architecture suitable for a Tokyo Sanctuary base.

[16] The Mumbai slum set in the season finale was constructed on the parking lot of the studio, which took two to three weeks to complete.

[34] The finale was filmed during one of the hottest heatwaves to hit British Columbia; Tapping found that the set was hotter than the average temperature of the actual Mumbai.

The company's Lee Wilson noted that their workload for the second season "increased exponentially" over the first,[30] with some episodes containing as many as 500 visual effects shots.

[18] The second season introduces "moving zorts," an upgraded technique the film crew used to complete the effect where Druitt teleports.

To make a scene where the macri enters a jacket, Wilson used fishing wire to move a sleeve slightly.

[18] Dunne wore a mullet and a white eye contact lens in "Pavor Nocturnus" for Will's alternate self in a dystopian future.

[43] John Sinnott of DVD Talk said that while "the show still has a lot of charm," he felt it did not live up to the standards of the first season.

She's basically the same character as Ashley, tough as nails on the outside but still a vulnerable young woman on the inside, but this time in an Indian shell.

Todd Masters, Holland Miller, Harlow Macfarlane, Werner Pretorius and Yukio Okajima won "Best Make-Up" for "Fragments".