Who is Levi in Ransom Canyon? You've seen the actor before — minus the beard
Ransom Canyon season 2 landed on Netflix on 23 July 2026 and, in episode 5, handed Josh Duhamel's Staten Kirkland a half-brother nobody knew existed — a heavily bearded recluse living alone in the mountains.
If the face under all that hair felt familiar, it should. The actor has been a fixture on television for 25 years.
Who Levi is in the story
Levi is Staten's estranged half-brother, described in the casting announcement as a mountain man who lives off the land. He was never accepted as a Kirkland by their father, Sam, and after his mother's death he cut ties with the family altogether. Staten tracks him down for a distinctly unsentimental reason: he needs Levi's board vote to take back control of the Double K ranch after Sam pushed him out.
Levi declines. He tells Staten that "home is not a place, it's a person" and is gone before sunrise. Total screen time: one episode, roughly two scenes.
The actor under the beard
It's Steve Howey, 48 — cast in a recurring guest role, as Variety reported in November 2025, and shot at Netflix Studios Albuquerque. Clean-shaven, you know him from:
- Van Montgomery — six seasons of Reba, 2001 to 2007.
- Kevin Ball — all 11 seasons of Shameless, 2011 to 2021.
- Captain Nick Wagner — ABC's High Potential, where his facial hair peaked at one polarising moustache.
The guest-star arrangement is what lets him appear here at all — he's still committed to High Potential, and a recurring role fits around it.
Why he's in it so briefly
By design, apparently. Showrunner April Blair told TVLine the part was deliberately small — a way of building out the family's world and giving Staten a jolt at the right moment. Not everyone bought the logic: several outlets pointed out that hiring the season's biggest guest star for two scenes is an odd use of Steve Howey.
Will Levi be back?
No season 3 has been confirmed yet, but Duhamel — who has known Howey for more than 20 years — is openly lobbying for it, saying there's plenty left to unpack between the brothers and their father.
"I'd love to see him come back," Duhamel told TVLine in 2026.
One episode, two scenes, one enormous beard. If season 3 happens, expect all three to return.