Shadows and Bones Season 2 Interview: Ben Barnes as Kirigan

After Shadow and bone fans crazy about Kirigan General Ben Barnes in the first season, io9 famously asked the audience at large, “what do you see in this asshole?This remains the perfect article. However, I think regardless of people’s personal feelings To characterwe can all agree: Barnes is in awe of the scenery…AAnd he returned in the second season, ready to look damn good doing it over and over again.

Barnes sat down with io9 at a roundtable interview to support second season Netflix let go and discuss Kirigan’s new ambitions and instability. After stating that his job in the first season was to “use his charm and manipulation” to establish social hierarchy in the world, he said: “This season I was excited because all these masks have been dropped. We watch him being poisoned from within by his literal shadow demons. But also this power card gives him the opportunity to simply tell the truth as he sees it and kind of really let himself break and sort of go completely into all the darkness because he has nothing to lose.”

In addition to losing control of his power and the many masks that previously protected him, Kirigan also loses many of his allies. At the end of the first season, not only Alina Starkova (Jesse May Lee) broke off relations with him, but also his own mother Baghra (Zoe Wanamaker). and most of the Ravkan court decides he can no longer be trusted. When asked if he considered this a consequence action, Barnes said, “I think like all toxic villains, he sees himself as a victim. He says to his mother: “Everything that I am, I learned from you on my knees”, blaming her.”

During the second seasonAlina and Kirigan”visit” each other through a kind of magical psychic connection. They don’t get the same push and pull as they did in the first season, but their stories are still very tightly intertwined. “When it comes to Alina, he feels the magnetism and connection and sees something of himself in her,” adds Barnes. But he finds he can’t get her back– Aalthough Barnes says that Kirigan “believes in his plans and is willing to suffer the consequences of chasing them.”

He also talks about his character’s connection to Alina and how she shattered the preconceived notions about magic laid out in the first season. “I wanted to justify it with something conscious and meditative. Then, when he realizes that this new power is a kind of healing for him, [he and Alina] both begin to abuse this connection in their own ways for their own purposes, and both end up trying to kill each other in this space.”

The series hints at the redemption of the shadowcaster, but not in way where Kirigan actually gets forgiveness. He just learns that he may have been a villain all this time, and understands what he had to sacrifice in order to gain power. “He’s digging up an old version of himself that can love. Then it’s going to be hate and anger, and he’s going to lead with that… And it’s not until much later in the season that he starts asking himself more difficult questions, because he sort of struggles with his humanity and mortality.”

All eight episodes Shadow and bone the second season is available on Netflix.

Want more io9 news? Find out when to expect the latest news Marvel, star WarsAnd Star Trek releases what’s next DC Universe in film and televisionand everything you need to know about the future Doctor Who.