The Librarians: The Next Chapter may feature a new team, but the original Librarians are never too far away. At San Diego Comic-Con, Callum McGowan, Olivia Morris, Jessica Green and Bluey Robinson were joined by returning stars Christian Kane and Lindy Booth, along with executive producer Dean Devlin, to talk about bringing the two generations of the franchise together and what lies ahead for the show.
For Kane and Booth, returning to the world of The Librarians was less about showing the new cast how things should be done and more about encouraging them to make the characters their own. Kane describes his appearance at the end of the first season as a passing of the baton, while Booth talks about how easily she slipped back into Cassandra after all these years, and why the differences between each Librarian have always been one of the show’s biggest strengths.
In the interview, Devlin also explains what he looks for when casting the series, including actors who listen and react like “jazz musicians,” as well as people who make the long days off camera enjoyable. McGowan and Morris also tease the emotional challenges ahead, from Vikram learning to rely on his newfound family to a second season that finds the team struggling instead of simply settling into their roles. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Watch the full conversation in the video below or on our YouTube channel.
Lindy, how was it bringing Cassandra back after all these years?
Lindy Booth: What was really interesting was Dean gave me this amazing piece of information, that this group is librarianing at the same time that we are librarianing. So a whole world had existed that Cassandra had been a part of. He was like, “fill in those gaps. Let’s see where she is now.”
And so, I was a little bit nervous about coming back, just stepping into a new show as a guest, but Christian was there to greet me and we slipped back into it so effortlessly.
For the original Librarian’s, did you give the new cast advice about being on such a successful show that has this big fan base? And what was the most fun part about meeting your newer counterpoints?
Christian Kane: The one thing I wanted to tell them, was these are yours. Find these people. There’s nothing we can do. We can’t help you. We can’t save you. It’s up to you. And I wanted to give them that sort of power, that sort of a ‘go get it, go find it.’
So, for me to show up at the end of season one and make them Librarians and give the speech that Noah Wyle gave to us, it was very much a passing of the baton.
Lindy Booth: What’s really fun about The Librarians too, and we’ve always talked about this, is that the Librarians are all very different people and they’ve been brought together by the force that is the library. So, watching four totally different people, what they bring to the character, what they bring to the show is what makes it special. They don’t have to try to be something or try to be a different version of someone else.
So, I gave no advice. Be yourself. That’s what’s going to make you fun. That’s what the fans love too, and that’s what the fans fell in love with.
Dean, when you’re casting for the show, are you looking more for personalities or do you have set things you’re looking for from each actor?
Dean Devlin: Thank you, that’s an excellent question. So, only part of the casting is do they fit the character, because I fully expect these actors to know the characters ultimately better than I do, because they live it 24 hours a day. I’m always looking at a character in its role with the others to tell the bigger story. They’re inside the character all day, 24 hours a day.
So, I look for a couple things when I’m casting. The first I look for is, are they a jazz musician? Because there’s a lot of actors who will work with an acting coach and do this beautiful performance, but the minute the other actor comes in, they do the same performance. Which means they’re not listening to the other actor.
Every one of these people here are amazing jazz musicians.
And in fact, what I’ll often do is when I’ll do a callback, I will actually give them bad direction that’s wrong for the character, just to see if they can make an adjustment. And then later on set I have to go, ‘you were right.’ So that’s 50%. 50% of it is, are they a jazz musician?
But the other 50% is, I’ve got to live with these guys. They’ve got to live with each other. What are they like off camera? Because I don’t care how talented you are, if you’re just a horrible pain in the tush, it’s going to ruin the show. And every one of these people, you’d spend years with them. They’re a delight to be around. They’re interesting. They’re exciting. They have interesting opinions.
And so, I really care about what’s happening off camera as much as I do on camera.
Jessica in particular, I call her the sunshine. Because we will have days that are just brutal, horrible weather. It’s really hot. It’s a long day. Everybody’s tired. And she’ll walk on set like it’s the greatest day that ever happened with this big smile on her face. And you’ll see everybody else kind of go, “Oh, I guess we’re having fun again.”
So, to me, it’s a jazz musician in front of the camera and just a good person to be around.
Callum, Vikram has to give up his lone wolf instincts. What does that change cost him emotionally?
Callum McGowan: Well, Vikram has been through the wringer a little bit in season one and I don’t think he’s fully out of that yet. But in this new series, we see him having to rely on the people around him a lot more and give that trust.
But then the stakes are raised for him and the idea of what he could lose now after losing so much of the past. He could lose this newfound family that he’s come to love and adore. And who he needs, really.
What kind of new layers did you discover while shooting this season that you weren’t expecting your characters to have for season one?
Callum McGowan: Well, I said before that when I watched the series back, because my memory is that of a goldfish, so I need to break my memory, but my relationship with Lysa who plays my great, great, great, great, great granddaughter. How that progresses throughout the series is something I noticed obviously at first, but it’s a really beautiful thing to see that relationship grow, I think.
Olivia Morris: I think it shocked me when I opened the script for the first episode and the second season, I thought, you know, we’re going to see these guys be really good at what they’re doing, jelling and everything. Absolutely not. We’re all having a bad time, right? Lots of stuff’s happening and I think it really grabbed me as an audience member, but as an actor, I was like, oh, we’re not about to this isn’t the glory season. You’re not about to see us be brilliant, you’re about to watch us struggle.
And I think that was so fun as an actor, because you want a bit of tension, you want something to push against, and Dean gave us exactly that for the first episode and it continues throughout.
