We hit the Freeform press room at this year’s New York Comic Con, where media outlets of all kinds got the chance to sit down with the Shadowhunters cast and executive producers. For our roundtable, our trio of showrunners, Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer, and Matt Hastings, talked about the origins and motives of our new big bad, the creative freedom that comes with tackling sensitive issues through a fantasy lens, and our very own BSS exclusive concerning the journey of our favorite warlock in Season 3!
Todd Slavkin proved at the table that he was a good storyteller, delighting everyone with the tale about what happened to Lilith to make her so hell-bent on revenge. “Her first husband was someone named Adam,” he began. “She was kicked out the Garden of Eden, and she believes that he cursed her to be barren and not able to have a child and that really made her mad. A woman scorned and a woman who cannot have a child is a woman you do not wanna eff with!”
He went on to praise Defiance actress Anna Hopkins and her ability to bring emotional resonance to her role as the villain as someone who wants to raise Sebastian – Jonathan Morgenstern – as her own son. Matt Hastings agreed, adding that the complexity of the character haunts the show from underneath and balances well with the more light-hearted aspects of the goings on of the main characters literally above ground.
When asked how they feel about taking on the responsibility of sensitive issues and portraying them accurately, Darren Swimmer had a lot to say about how the fantasy genre allows them to play with these issues in a way that distances the viewer from the harshness of reality: “[Having that genre] to play in is such a fruitful place to examine that stuff because we would rather talk about racism as a difference between, you know, the vampires and the werewolves, for example. […] it’s amazing that you can comment on things, you know, from a different angle and I think that’s what really lightens itself, too, is the metaphor and all the dynamics that are brought up…”
Matt made sure to point out that while these metaphors are being utilized, they are still trying to make the show feel grounded through highlighting the humanity of these characters: “The epicenter of the show, if you stripped away everything, the seelies, the warlocks, the vampires […] is the people in the heart of the conflict, and you want these people to be so relatable, like whether or not they’re putting on seelie armor or not, it almost doesn’t matter. What we’re striving to do every day is to make it feel as real and grounded as possible.”
Arguably, the most exciting part of the interview came about when we got the chance to bring up the character of Magnus Bane and the possibility of his demonic lineage being brought into the show. “First of all, we get to go to Edom,” Todd stated enthusiastically. “That is an exclusive for Basic Shadowhunters Stuff!” He then name-dropped Asmodeus. Book lovers, rejoice! His self-proclaimed “fangirl side” emerged when he expressed his desire for Harry Shum Jr. to be present at the event, asserting proudly that the actor was “crushing it this year,” and that Magnus has a new apothecary set to play with.
He then gave us some insight into the journey that Magnus will go on in Season 3, which involves him having to face the repercussions of his emotionally-charged decision to side with the Seelie Queen at the end of the last season. He launched into a role play of sorts between himself and Magnus: “‘This is the right thing to do.’ Magnus, that wasn’t the right thing to do! You messed up! And, what’s super important […] we really deal with the realities of ramifications from bad decisions. You know, people on TV, they do it all the time; it’s like, ‘Oh, everything’s fine…’ Life’s not like that, you know?”
Check out the roundtable interview below:
Interviewer for BSS: Sara Gale. Filmed by Kenneth Cressman.
