Chase Stokes Had ‘Rigorous’ Military Training With Former Seal Team 3 Member for ‘Valiant One’: ‘From Weapons to How to Break Into Buildings’

Familiar faces returned to Poguelandia on Saturday. As the cast and crew of “Outer Banks” celebrated the premiere of Season 4 Part 2 at a fan event in Santa Monica, some of the stars also teased future projects.

Chase Stokes will be seen starring as a U.S. Army tech specialist in the action thriller “Valiant One.” “My character isn’t your traditional soldier,” Stokes told Variety. “He’s somebody who’s working at a desk on a base and gets put into a very unconventional situation for himself. So it’s a little bit of a hero’s journey.”

He discussed the parallels between his “Valiant One” character and Glen Powell’s portrayal of Gary Johnson in “Hit Man.” While both actors play unassuming characters thrust into combat roles, Stokes shared his interest in working in a creative capacity behind the camera as well.

“[Glen Powell] being somebody who was a writer on ‘Hit Man’ and then bringing that to life, that’s something that I’m actively doing now,” Stokes said. “What he’s done carving a space for the leading man again is a really beautiful thing…Glen is absolutely somebody I look up to in a career I’m continuing to try to mold.”

Stokes also added that a former member of Naval Special Warfare Group 3 was hired to put the cast through “extensive military training, from weapons to how we move, how to breach into buildings.” The actor said: “When we tested the movie, we did it with people in the armed forces, and they were very pleased with how accurate we were with our representation.”

Rudy Pankow said he’s looking for a project that addresses gun violence: “It’s something right now that needs to be addressed and spoken about. We need to really come together as people in this country.”

The “Uncharted” star believes film can be an effective artistic medium to elicit key discussion surrounding the topic.

“That’s something I do want to talk about. Sometimes a movie can do the trick,” Pankow said. “It needs to have an art and meaning behind, basically saying, ‘This is wrong.’ Art can spark that.”

At the event, Austin North promoted some of his recent projects including the Amazon Studios action drama “One Fast Move” starring KJ Apa and the Dylan Sprouse-led romantic comedy “Beautiful Wedding” on Hulu.

“I grew up watching Dylan and his brother Cole on Disney. My sister actually saw Dylan’s face at the Mall of Georgia, and it was an acting showcase, and she signed me up for it. That’s how I got into acting,” North told Variety. “So it literally goes back to Dylan’s face. I booked (‘Beautiful Wedding’) and I told him the story, and he was like ‘wow, that’s amazing, man’ but he’s somebody I’ve always looked up to as an actor.”

In addition to starring as Cleo Anderson, Carlacia Grant has had a number of her cooking recipes featured on the show and crafted a culinary series for the Poguelandia event in Santa Monica.

“There’s the menu I curated, and we have clima chicken cheese on bread. We have a menu item for every cast member,” Grant said.

She added that she’s looking forward to experimenting with gumbo, chargrilled oyster and spicy crab cakes for Season 5 of “Outer Banks.”

Madison Bailey, who plays Kiara Carrera in the series, expressed her excitement over the release of her upcoming music.

“I’m making more music,” she told Variety, adding that potentially featuring her music on “Outer Banks” would be “kind of the dream. Maybe next season.”

On Season 4 Part 2, Bailey also shared “My character is going to have a life-changing moment.”

A couple of days after the fan event, Netflix announced that “Outer Banks” will come to an end with its upcoming Season 5.

Check out more photos from the “Outer Banks” fan event below.