It’s been a long, long wait for Season 2 of Sleepy Hollow, and during the hiatus, I spoke with the show’s Canadian connection, co-creator Phillip Iscove, who shared some exciting tidbits on what’s in store! Read the full interview, and don’t forget to watch tonight at 9pm ET/PT on Global TV in Canada and 9/8c on FOX in the US.
I was at TCA earlier this summer, and there were some interesting points that were brought up, but not elaborated upon for obvious reasons with Crane and Katrina. Katrina’s back, and so is her son, but he’s now War and aligned with Moloch. Is it possible for Crane and Katrina to redeem their son at all? Or is he so far gone and they’re going to just deal with the looming threat of the Four Horsemen?
You just asked the question of the season. That is what we’re really drilling into this season. What do you do if your son has turned to the dark side? Is there still humanity left in him? And if so, not only can they salvage that, can they pull that from the depths of the darkness that Moloch has cast over him. I can’t speak whether or not they’ll be successful, but that is the wedge of the season, the conflict of the season, not just for Crane and Katrina, but Crane and Abbie as well. Crane and Abbie’s mission as witnesses is to prevent the Apocalypse, and yet Crane’s son seems to be doing his best to make sure that happens.
Speaking of Crane and Abbie, there was the whole betrayal at the end of last season. How much is rebuilding that trust between the two of them going to play into the early part of the season?
It’s certainly going to play into the season. I think it’s a big part of Abbie’s character, and Crane for that matter. Abbie put her trust in Crane, and he betrayed her trust to a certain extent. I think that’s a deep wound, and that takes time to heal but I think … that trust will come back to them relatively quickly.
There’s also hat whole balance between Crane and Abbie. He needs her help, but she also needs his help in everything that she’s facing with Jenny. So there’s that little dance that kept going throughout Season 1 that I’m assuming will continue through Season 2.
Yes. Abbie’s complicated relationship with her sister will very much be in the foreground for Abbie’s character. As they move forward, their mother is going to play a role in this season as well, so you’re going to see that manifesting itself — not just with her relationship with Jenny, but with Crane as well. And actually to an extent you’ll see a little bit of it with Katrina being a mother and how she’s reacting to Henry.
Orlando Jones has been extremely coy when asked about anything regarding Irving this season. What can you tease about his journey early on in Season 2?
You’re going to find Irving in a tough spot. Irving is continuing to grapple with the consequences that go along with his actions at the end of last season. You’re also going to see a new sheriff in town, in the form of Sheriff Reyes, who is also going to be a complication for Irving. I think that he’s going to be tested in many, many ways this season. Without giving anything away, it’s certainly going to be a complicated and trying season for Irving.
I’ve read that this sheriff also has a connection to Abbie and Jenny. What can you share about that?
I can say that Reyes is from Sleepy Hollow originally, that she has a past in Sleepy Hollow, and that will criss-cross with the path of Jenny and Abbie.
One thing that I thought was really fun in the first season — especially with how dark the subject matter can get — those little moments of levity that really help break that darkness. How do you make it clear that Crane is still having trouble fitting into the modern world without being so overt and beating the viewers over the head with it? Can you maybe talk a little about balancing that aspect without making it a running gag?
You mean the ‘man out of time’ stuff? I think that it’s definitely a high wire act, and it’s one that Bob [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] and myself and Len [Wiseman] are definitely aware of from the get go. We never wanted Crane to feel like a cartoon character. Not that there’s anything wrong with a cartoon characters, but we always want him to feel grounded. A lot of that is in Tom’s performance, and that Tom is just so incredible; he was born to play this role. I think it’s about making sure that underneath it all there’s a social commentary of some sort. It’s never a joke just for a joke. It’s always making some sort of statement. It’s more about Crane acclimatizing to a very different world, socially and politically and physically. But it’s always grounded in some sort of belief system.
At TCA, the writers teased some supernatural characters for Season 2: a wendigo and a succubus, for example. Are those one-off characters where they’ll be in just one episode, or will they have an ongoing role throughout the season?
Some of our monsters will have ongoing perspective, or recur for that matter. I would say that at this point that the wendigo and the succubus are focused primarily on the episodes that they are in. That’s not to say we’re not open to them occurring in some form or another, but some of the monsters will potentially come back. I think it’s always a goal of ours on the show; it’s not enough to just say “here’s a monster,” but the Sleepy Hollow take on that monster. That’s a really important detail that we always want to do, which is to funnel these characters through our mythology and our filter. You think that you might know what a wendigo looks like, but wait till you see it on Sleepy Hollow.
The other thing I was excited to see was the casting of Abbie and Jenny’s mother. I am already speculating how she’ll play into the season.
I’d be surprised if you guessed how she’s going to play into the show. It’s very exciting. [Aunjanue Ellis] is a phenomenal actress, and I think that we built a lot of Abbie’s and Jenny’s mom just emotionally into the season, so I think it’s going to be very rewarding to see that play out for fans.
What kind of freedom has the 18-episode order this season given the writers, rather than the shorter season you had the first time around?
I think it’s given us the opportunity to put a little bit more breathing room, I think, in terms of us making sure we can really run with the character arcs that we’re hoping to do this season. It’s given us a little bit more runway, which is a great thing. I think it’s exciting, and it gives our fans more episodes to enjoy.
Photo Courtesy of IMDB
