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

Hidden Remote: So some fans are a little but nervous about the future of Malec in Shadowhunters season 3. Are you able to tease anything about whether Malec is going to stay strong?

Matthew: Oh, oh well here’s a tease for you. You all should be nervous. You should be terrified because everything can just go right out the window, and I want everyone to speculate like crazy. I want everyone to get on there and start typing up their theories. I want everyone to get really worked up about it, because I’ll tell you why. In the end we know — and I say this all the time and I don’t care if I get yelled at for it — in the end we know they’re going to be ok.

Along the way though, Alec is going to make mistakes, and Magnus is going to make mistakes, and it’s gonna stress y’all out. You are all going to get stressed. It’s gonna be worrisome. You’re going to have night-terrors as a result of it. You’re going to have to call for help. You’re going to have to get on Twitter and ask me if everything’s ok, and I’m going to say, ‘Yes it is.’ I assure you in the end, everything will be ok, but along the way, it’s problem city. That’s my tease that you wanted. That’s what I can tease…

Hidden Remote: Ok, sounds perfect. I’m sure everyone will be flooding your social media with theories and speculation. 

Matthew: Yeah, yeah go ahead and put that word for word.

Hidden Remote: Oh, I will.

Matthew: Yeah, that’ll be great. Really rile them up.

Hidden Remote: Oh, man. Ok, so one last question for you. What’s something that you have learned about Alec this season on Shadowhunters?

Matthew: That by becoming a more complex person, that also comes with the territory of being a more disorderly and more problem-proned person. So we’re going to see as Alec becomes a more complex individual with more capacity for emotion and more capacity for love, that he’s also going to deal with the horrible side effects of what that is. You know, of what being human is, which is that you become largely imperfect.

So we’re going to see that as the story progresses, that he’s not as capable of helping and supporting the people around him as he was in the past, because now he’s thinking about himself a little more, which is good, and he should. So we’re going to see that.

Next: Throwback! Watch Matthew Daddario's interview from Season 2B

New episodes of Shadowhunters air Tuesdays at 8/7c on Freeform and on the Freeform app.