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‘Shadowhunters’: Will Tudor talks Jonathan’s idealized plans, teases Season 2B finale

By Marissa Messiano

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Photo credit: Freeform/John Medland, acquired from Freeform Press Site

Will Tudor, who plays Jonathan Morganstern on Freeform’s ‘Shadowhunters’, explains his character’s idealized plans and teases the “explosive” Season 2 finale.

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Will Tudor’s journey throughout Season 2 of Shadowhunters as both Sebastian Verlac and Jonathan Morganstern has been a dark and suspenseful ride. Audiences have watched the kindhearted, knowledgeable Sebastian Verlac infiltrate the New York Institute and gain the trust of our favorite Shadowhunters, only to betray those around him and reveal himself as Jonathan Morganstern, the conniving, violent, demon-blooded son of Valentine.

Desperate for a family who loves him and to get his revenge on Valentine, we saw Jonathan pull strings for weeks in order to capture his father. But now that the two are working side-by-side, they each seem to think they have the upper hand over the other.

We caught up with Will Tudor to learn more about Jonathan’s relationship with Valentine, his future plans for gaining Clary’s trust, and what he thinks fans of the series will love the most about the anticipated Season 2 finale.

Hidden Remote: Your work with Alan Van Sprang this season has been so captivating to watch, but who do you think is the better manipulator, Valentine or Jonathan? 

Will Tudor: Oh, now that’s a good question. I feel like obviously what we saw thus far was Jonathan capture Valentine and then eventually start working with him, and I know from Jonathan’s perspective, he’s very much in control. He’s letting Valentine… he’s giving Valentine enough of a leash to let him feel like he’s in control, but really I think Jonathan is in the driving seat.

“He can control people’s emotions even though he can’t control his own.”

I think Valentine’s [leading] perhaps as well, but I think… I would like to say Jonathan because he’s been able to find his way into the Institute and pretend to be this very nice guy. That in itself is an incredible move that he knows he can do. He can control people’s emotions even though he can’t control his own [laughs], which is great fun to play.

Hidden Remote: Jonathan saw that Clary was willing to give him a second chance at the end of Episode 17. How is that going to affect his plan moving forward?

Tudor: I think we’ll see his mind become more focused on Clary and her as sort of an end point to the possibility of happiness. I’m really excited for people to see in the next episode how that comes to a head and what kind of happens with that. But very much so… that kindness was everything he needed to hear.

‘Yes she does love me; she does care about me.’ She’s the person that he’s created in his head, this idealized version of his sister who would drop everything for him and make everything ok. Because that’s what he wants, he just wants someone to love him at the end of the day, and in his head he’s created this idea of this perfect person who can fill that hole and that void. That becomes a great fixation for him.

Hidden Remote: Do you think Clary’s right about there being any humanity left in Jonathan? Can he be saved?

Tudor: I think so. I think in terms of playing him I was quite keen to find that, and I know that Todd and Darren, the way they approached the character was to really flesh out that side of him and really give him a reason for being the way he is. So I do think there’s always the possibility of redemption with him, and I think in a way, that’s very exciting.

Ultimately he’s like this volatile child. Emotionally, the way he looks at the world, he doesn’t have that emotional intelligence because he’s never been able to develop it. All he knows is rejection, and so I think he has this idealized view of what it might be, what acceptance might be. And so I think he hopes that he can.

“…his hope is that he can have this life where he’s ultimately in control of Clary.”

I don’t think he necessarily wants to do bad things, I think his emotions just take control and his experiences dictate how he acts. But I think his hope is that he can have this life where he’s ultimately in control of Clary and she’s his and it’s just them together. So yeah, I think absolutely it’s very interesting for me as an actor and also for viewers to sort of have that possibility dangling there.

Photo credit: Freeform/John Medland, acquired from Freeform Press Site

Hidden Remote: As far as being a son of Valentine goes, Jace definitely got the better end of the deal — and he has Clary. Is Jonathan jealous of Jace and how will that play a role in upcoming episodes?

Tudor: I can’t say too much, but I think people will be pleased with how that’s addressed. You’re absolutely right. The way Jace is his parallel, he’s everything that should have happened to Jonathan. Even though he’s not related to Valentine, he somehow ends up getting the better end of the stick, and he just doesn’t understand that.

He doesn’t get how that could possibly be, and I think he’s put a lot of that hatred toward Valentine onto Jace. I think it’s going to be very exciting when that comes to a head… or maybe it doesn’t [laughs]. Who knows?

Hidden Remote: Recently we’ve seen you switch back and forth between Jonathan and Sebastian (and Jonathan trying very hard to keep his cool as Sebastian) all very quickly. What was the most difficult part about going back and forth between these mindsets?

Tudor: You know, it’s funny. I think in a way because of all the research into the character at the beginning, I think going back into the Jonathan side of it is easier, to go that way rather than the other way. It’s always a little bit unnerving when you’re doing something slightly closer to how you are in real life, but then with a tinge of [Jonathan from] before, because that becomes very kind of uneasy.

But as an actor that’s great fun because as it gets quicker, the flip between the two, the excitement within me when performing it grew because I was able to really play around with that, so it was actually really good fun.

Hidden Remote: Do you think we might see Jonathan (with Sebastian’s face) sticking around for Season 3?

Tudor: Um, I couldn’t possibly say…

Hidden Remote: How do you think fans will react to the Season 2 finale?

Tudor: I think it’s really exciting. It really does ramp up. I know when reading the scripts originally, certainly in the table reads, the end of the last few episodes we were all like ‘Ohhh, wow…’ We all got very excited about it because they said the tension ramps up so much and I think really it’s big, it’s exciting, it’s explosive, and it’s brilliant.

There’s a real emotional heft to it as well, especially within the relationships that have been built up throughout the series… and having seen how they’ve responded to stuff so far, I have high hopes to how they will respond to it.

Watch a sneak peek of Will Tudor in Monday’s all new episode of Shadowhunters below:

Next: Kat McNamara talks Jonathan and the ‘brutal’ S2 finale

Shadowhunters airs Mondays at 8/7c on Freeform and on the Freeform App. Follow Will Tudor and Shadowhunters on Twitter for the latest updates and behind-the-scenes looks at the series!

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