MTV announced today that filming for The Shannara Chronicles Season Two has begun and provided a list of new and returning cast plus some details about the season’s challenges. From the sounds of it, we’ll have at least one new love triangle. For the rest, the Chronicles seems to be picking up ideas from all over Brooks’ series, giving familiar but not identical enemies, creating new characters, and dropping Garet Jax into the mix–a very young Garet Jax, one might add, but then, this is MTV so that is really redundant.
According to MTV, the series takes place a year after the original series. Wil has settled down to become a healer after all (One is tempted to cheer, but didn’t he pledge to save Eretria? a year seems a long time to wait for that). The Ellycrys/Amberle still has all the demons sealed away, but people being what they are, everyone manages to cook up new enemies in no time flat. Bandon, the seer from last season, has been swallowed by darkness and is working to bring the Warlock Lord (who may or may not resemble the one from the book) back. In the meantime, a new agency called the Crimson has decided that magic and magic-doers are responsible for all of the problems the Four Lands saw last season (to be fair, they have a point) and is out to kill everyone who might practice magic (generally a bad idea). When Wil is saved from a Crimson attack by a mysterious woman, Mareth, he and she end up traveling with Eretria to find Allanon and prevent the return of the Warlock Lord and stop the Crimson. Even turning Amberle into a tree can’t prevent Wil from being rescued by enigmatic women and landing himself in a love triangle. Ok, the triangle is a guess on my part, not an MTV promise, but I’ll be shocked if it isn’t true. Throw in a new character, Lyria, who is described as “romantically linked” to Eretria, we have the makings of a good old-fashioned Love Dodacaheron.
Returning cast members Austin Butler (Wil), Ivana Baquero (Eretria), Manu Bennett (Allanon), Aaron Jakubenko (Ander) and Marcus Vanco (Bandon) will be joined Malese Jow, Vanessa Morgan, Desmond Chiam, Gentry White, and Caroline Chikezie. All but Gentry are playing entirely new characters.
These new characters include Mareth (Malese Jow), a magic-user and someone who “gets what she wants on her own terms” and takes over Amberle’s role as Wil’s rescuer, which should make her and Eretria, another woman who gets what she wants, soul-sisters, but not necessarily happy ones. To add to the relationship complications, there is Lyria (Vanessa Morgan), “a beautiful and mysterious young woman” romantically linked to our favorite Rover. Then there are the leaders. Ander (Aarron Jakubenko) is still king of the Elves, but he’s facing General Rigam (Desmon Chiam) a former general in Eventine’s army who has reacted to the chaos by becoming leader of the Crimson and Queen Tamlin (Caroline Chikezie) the ruthless queen of the human kingdom of Leah. The only somewhat familiar character coming next season is Garet Jax, the brilliant fighter from Wishsong of Shannara. The MTV release describes him as a “skilled, sly, and charismatic bounty hunter,” which works fairly well with the book’s version, except that version is a good deal older and more seasoned.
What do you think of the new plot for The Shannara Chronicles Season Two? Do you look forward to seeing them tell a completely new story? Wish they were moving on to Wishsong straightaway? Let us know!
via MTV.com
