On January 2, “The Rig,” a supernatural thriller on Prime Video, will return for a second season, giving viewers a bigger story than the first. The creator, David Macpherson, compares this growth to how things changed between “Alien” and its follow-up, “Aliens.”

The new season starts after the Kinloch Bravo oil rig is sunk by a huge storm, which was a shocking ending to the first season. People who are still alive are flown to a secret location in the ocean called the Stac. Here, they have to deal with the physical and mental trauma of what they went through while also dealing with corporate intrigue and the ocean’s lurking dangers.

“I wanted to broaden the show’s horizons, building the world and taking the team to new locations,” he said. He talked about the size of the oil business and wanted to show his ambition. “The production team hired...