Expect Season 2 to continue defying audience expectations. The Magicians established early on in Season 1 that it's not afraid to go the completely unexpected route: case in point, the excellent fourth episode, "The World Within the Walls." That episode was a real turning point for The Magicians as it found its voice and also established it had no boundaries; somehow it made even a Taylor Swift dance scene relevant and hilarious.
McNamara described that episode as his and fellow showrunner Sera Gamble's way of establishing this isn't your typical fantasy series or teen drama. "We want to be right up front that we're f--king with you," he said.
Added Gamble, "I think we both came to this [in Season 1] a little bit antsy and a little bit bored of the kind of TV that we had been watching and the kind of TV that we had been making, so having fun and doing something that resonates for us and feels fresh for us is a high priority for us."
In Season 2, that means moving on from a coming of age story about people discovering who they are to an "oh s--t, now we're adults" narrative."I think that there's something about human existence which is there's a disappointment after you achieve a dream," McNamara said. "I think that the characters live in that kind of head set where they're like, 'Oh my god, I'm king, what do I do?' Eliot literally says that."
When the core cast of The Magicians made it to Fillory in Season 1, they accomplished a life-long goal. That's especially the case for main character Quentin Coldwater, who grew up obsessed with Fillory and magic and then, over the course of one season, discovered both are real. But part of the struggle with adulthood is learning that accomplishing your dreams doesn't always equal permanent happiness and satisfaction, and that's something all of The Magicians' characters will struggle with.
"There's no life situation that will take you away from yourself. There will be fanfare, you will get a crown put on your head, there will be people at your beck and call, they will literally make you a unicorn milk latte if that's what you ask for, but then when you sit down, you're still you," said Gamble. "Those are the things that they deal with."
But even as Quentin, Eliot, Margo, Penny, Alice and Julia grapple with the cold splash of reality that is the shift into adulthood and responsibility, they also have two terrifying threats to deal with. Not only is The Beast still alive and newly allied with Julia, but the trickster god Reynard is out wreaking havoc on the real world.
"The Beast is more of an immediate threat," said star Jason Ralph, who plays Quentin. "I don't know that [Quentin's] grasped the danger of Reynard, and especially in this universe, I classify Reynard as a lesser god, and he's Earth-bound. The Beast can follow you anywhere, and The Beast has apparently been following him for a while. A challenge for Quentin early on in the season is balancing these two different ways of attacking the same problem."Stella Maeve, who plays Julia, defends her character's actions at the end of Season 1 by saying her decision to not kill The Beast "wasn't intentional malice." The two find themselves unlikely allies who have more in common than first meets the eye.
"They're both victims of trauma. They were both sexually abused. They have that in common. There was this sacred thing that was taken from both of them that they can identify on, and so it's so interesting to see how anyone can go down that road," said Maeve. "The Beast, even though he's this awful character, it's almost like you can feel for him because of everything he went through. Had he not undergone such hysterical events, who knows if he would have stayed Martin Chatwin, or if he would have turned into The Beast?"
Season 2 will be divided among three central locations: Fillory, where the Brakebills students find themselves new rulers who need to clean up the mess The Beast has been creating for decades; Brakebills, where they need to return repeatedly for answers and assistance after not completing their education; and New York, where Julia continues her quest to stop Reynard.
"Fillory is a beast. It's a whole new character that we get to play with." said Olivia Taylor Dudley, who plays Alice. "We only saw a slight little bit of it last season. This year, some days I show up to work at like 4 in the morning on a mountaintop and the sun is rising and I'm like, 'You have got to be kidding me. Someone call me Frodo, because I don't know where I am right now.' It's like that -- a lot. I get chills thinking about it."Even as they fend off their two main antagonists, a new threat will emerge over the course of the season.
"Part of the reason we cliffhung exactly where we did is because we weren't quite finished with The Beast. We've discovered that we have two fantastic Big Bads in The Beast and Reynard. They both have real motivations for why they're behaving the way that they are, so there's a lot to explore with them. That's been really fun. The writers have really grabbed it in their teeth," teased Gamble. "As the season goes on, the idea of where the conflict is coming from, where the evil is coming from, it fractures. It's hidden. ... It will all snap into clear focus, we think, by the finale."
That threat ties back into the emotional conflict all the main characters are grappling with. Said McNamara: "I think they're all struggling with something The Beast says in episode 2 of Season 2 that might horribly be true. He says to Julia, 'Why do you think we invent these lives? It's because life is pointless, and the afterlife is even more pointless.' Now I'm not saying he's right, but that's a thing you struggle with as you reach maturity and consciousness: is life pointless? And we actually, I think, answer that question. Is life pointless? Partly, but it's somebody's fault, and you don't know who that is, and I think you're going to be surprised. Because life is pointless and horrible and indifferent to us, and it's someone's fault. It's a bit of a whodunnit."The Magicians returns Wednesday, January 25th at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy.
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
