Sera Gamble discusses The Magicians Season 3, a scared Fillory and Felicia Day
The Magicians season 3 premiere made people laugh and fear at the same time, and here Sera Gamble shares more of the things to expect.
Did you catch The Magicians season 3 premiere? The use of the code was one of the most ingenious elements. In an exclusive interview with Sera Gamble, one of the two showrunners, she expressed how creating the code was so much fun. How did that code come up and develop?
“We realized that they would have to find a way to communicate,” Sera explained, as she discussed how the Fairy Queen was learning Eliot and Margo’s plans, “The fun thing about being the High King and High Queen of a distant world is you can talk using references from Earth.”
More from Interviews
- Jeresa Featherstone, the costume designer behind Eric and Ridge’s stunning fashion showdown on The Bold and the Beautiful
- Jann Mardenborough: From gamer to racer to movie inspiration
- The Flamin’ Hot cast on the upcoming inspirational story
- With Love cast on season 2’s character growth and heartfelt storytelling
- Teresa Palmer and Miranda Otto chat all things The Clearing
That did certainly bring a fun pop culture element to the show. The Fairy Queen—and everyone else in Fillory—would have no idea what Eliot and Margo were talking about with their mentions of Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battlestar Galactica. It was the perfect MO, as both would have had plenty of shows and movies in common.
"“It was just a fun process of talking about the specific references that would make sense to both Margo and Eliot. The genre stuff they had in common; the things they would have seen. There were other references in the course of writing the episode that I thought of, but then I thought Margo would never have seen that. There was just the joy of writing very specifically for these two characters.”"
Many of The Magicians fans will know that Sera was one of the showrunners for Supernatural during Seasons 6 and 7. While there may have been no references of the Winchesters in the code, there are still plenty of connections within the series.
“I think Supernatural is soaked in the DNA of The Magicians,” Sera explained, while sharing how she’s not the only one from the series. David Read, a writer and producer for The Magicians, also worked with Sera on Supernatural. And then there’s Felicia Day, who played Charlie.
Felicia is joining the cast of The Magicians Season 3 as Poppy, who is based on a character from the books by Lev Grossman.
"“Our conception of Poppy in the show is that she, well, she shows up in the middle of the class and has her own priorities. We were interested in her as someone who quickly informs Quentin that she’s very self-interested, but the situation keeps pushing them together.”"
As for working with Felicia again, Sera has nothing but kind words, “She has this infectiously good attitude. She brings a sort of sunny intelligence to every character she plays, which isn’t surprising considering her own personality is sunny.”
Poppy isn’t the only new character to be introduced. As more of Fillory and the kingdoms within Fillory are explored, a new land will be introduced. Dina Meyer will play the role of the queen of this land, setting up more problems for Fillory’s High King and High Queen.
However, there are some familiar faces who will return. Fans can expect to see more of King Indri and Prince Ess. Fillory is the world with the most change to the landscape. It has always been infused with magic that was taken for granted. Without it, the people are undereducated and more medieval in nature and because of that they’re “really quite scared,” which will put more pressure of Eliot and Margo.
"“Our characters are debauched graduate students but they’re also king and queen of this land, and they have to deal with the fact that they are surrounded by other kingdoms that are freaking out.”"
While Fillory freaks out, there will be new partnerships; ones that you never thought would work out. Sera can’t wait for fans to see Julia and Alice team up, but there will also be the unexpected partnership of Julia and Fen. It will be interesting to see how Julia makes it to Fillory when magic is gone. Will this be linked somehow to Julia’s God-like powers Stella Maeve hinted towards?
When it comes to other characters at Brakebills, expect to see more of Josh and Dean Fogg. They become integral with the journey to get magic back.
"“I think in general on The Magicians it’s fun to have a large cast. We’ve always used very different and very quirky characters and we’ve always thrown them together. This season everyone cares about the same thing, which is “what the f**k is happening with magic and what can we do to get it back.” But just because they want the same thing doesn’t mean they like each other.”"
The Magicians has already shown they have characters who don’t like to be in the same room together, such as Penny and Quentin, “They’re like brothers, but I don’t think they’d consider themselves as friends.”
The character who may have the most growth is Kady, who is “dealing with a lot of crazy s**t” this season with Penny. She’ll also have to move forward from the expectations of Julia when dealing with Reynard and face some of her worst fears. Very few are going to get it easy, but is that really that surprising with a show like The Magicians?
The big question for many fans of the books is how much of Season 3 will be taken from the third book. Many shows will work on one book’s worth of material per season, whether it’s Harry Potter, Outlander and even Game of Thrones for the most part. The Magicians has done things differently. Julia’s storyline from Season 1 was taken from the second book, and her storyline in Season 3 will also be adapted partially from the second book. The focus of the quest will be that of Quentin’s in the second book.
“We really draw from all three books always,” Sera admitted while discussing the things to come, “But that said, there’s a lot of great story in book three that we haven’t touched on yet and we hope to in seasons to come.”
To get those seasons, the best way will be to watch the show. After that, talk about it and share it with friends. Sera and her team want to continue telling the stories.
"“If the audience is there and we get to make it, we’re really happy to make it.”"
Next: Hale Appleman discussions Eliot and a magicless Fillory in The Magicians Season 3
Are you excited to see more of The Magicians? What are you hoping to see happen in season 3? Keep the conversation going in the comments below.
The Magicians continues on Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy.