Shadowhunters season 3: Matthew Daddario breaks down Alec’s growing complexities (and why they’re problematic)

Matthew Daddario breaks down Alec’s complexities in Shadowhunters season 3, teases the future of his parabatai relationship, and promises that Malec will give fans “night-terrors.”

Shadowhunters season 3 has been a wild ride of Institute-protecting, demon possession, breaking-and-entering, and wine chugging, but mostly, we’ve watched our favorite Shadow World characters face consequences for decisions that were made last season. Alec Lightwood, played by Matthew Daddario, is at the forefront of many of these problems as the leader of the New York Institute, and we caught up with him to learn more about what we can expect to see from Alec in the coming episodes of the series.

Check out our interview with Daddario below to learn more about how we’ll see Alec react to his Maryse’s deruning, what it means for him to have his mother approve of his relationship, why he’s not paying so much attention to his parabatai, and how Alec being a more complex character in season 3 will cause him to create problems of his own.

Hidden Remote: Hi, Matthew!

Matthew: Hello! You survived the earthquake?

Hidden Remote: I did! I’m from New York too, so I’m not used to the LA earthquakes yet, but I honestly just thought a train was going by.

Matthew: Yeah, that’s what I always hear. I remember one in New York years ago in Manhattan back when I was a kid. I thought there was a garbage truck right outside my window, but no, it was just a little earthquake. So I’m glad you survived so we could do this interview.

Hidden Remote: It’s all good, and we have some important stuff to talk about. I think the biggest news in last week’s episode for Alec was what we learned from Maryse, that she will be deruned because of her involvement with the Circle. Are we going to see Alec take action to stop this?

Matthew: Yeah, so, Alec is in a little bit of, you know, a little bit of trouble with the Clave. He doesn’t really have a lot of pull right now. And the Clave is a pretty… I mean, if anybody’s read my past opinions on the Clave, I think that the Clave is a pretty evil organization, and I think they have too much power, and I think they limit the power of others under the guise of trying to help people. They don’t really listen to reason, and I think that’s part of Maryse’s storyline now.

Part of her future is that she’s going to go through significant change. There are going to be changes in her life. We’ve seen how she changed how she views the world, how she views her kids, and we’ve seen that she’s doing some version of soul-searching. She’s now getting divorced, and I think that this removal from this world may benefit her. And I think that Alec doesn’t exactly know what’s right for his parents. He doesn’t know what’s right for his mom. So I think he’s going to give her the reins here and say, ‘It’s up to you.’ Now, obviously it is concerning; being de-runed is a very unpleasant thing, but I don’t think that Alec is going to take action without his mother’s full approval. It’s her life, and I think that he wants to give that to her.

Click to the next slide to see more of our interview: