SDCC 2017: Cast Of The Magicians Teases Season 3

The Magicians ended last season on one of the biggest cliffhangers possible: the loss of magic. We’ve been wondering how our favorite characters will deal with that for months, until the cast and producers answered some of our burning questions at San Diego Comic Con last week. Watch the interviews below and learn about what season three has in store.

Executive Producers John McNamara and Sera Gamble teased that The Magicians season 3 will have “a lot of fairies, they’re not going away.” But fairies aren’t the only magical creatures fans will meet this year. “We were just so happy with [our design team’s] work on the White Lady… We thought maybe we might want to meet one of her siblings,” Gamble added.

How long will the show be without magic? “Julia has magic,” Gamble explained, as do the fairies and vampires. So it’s a matter of trying to work with the creatures that have been mistreated for centuries and finding out if they’re now willing to help humans. “There’s enough magical stuff in the show that the show still looks and feels really cool every week.”

Jason Ralph and Stella Maeve, the fearless leads of The Magicians, have switched positions since the start of the show. In the first season, Julia was left in the dark about world of magic while Quentin and his new friends all had it. But while Maeve relishes in playing the turnaround, there’s much more to the story. “It’s beyond their personal issues,” Maeve said. “There are so many global consequences to losing magic,” Ralph agreed passionately. “It’s a global responsibility that we’re not prepared for.”

One of the best things about the second season was Julia and Katie’s friendship, and Maeve teases that her potentially ex-friend does come back into the picture. Whether their relationship will survive or not is still in question, much like the relationship between Quentin and Alice. Ralph declared that Alice and Quentin are “intrinsically tied together in some way, whether they’re going to be enemies or friends.”

Hale Appleman and Summer Bishil, who play The Magicians‘ iconic duo of Eliot and Margo, echoed their cast members’ sentiments. “We’re just sort of dealing with bigger things than just our basic relationship problems,” Bishil teased. “Because we’re under occupation.” Appleman agreed with her, then went on to say that “there’s kind of a unity to the overall arc of the season for all the characters.” Uniting them all under one common quest grounds the show in his view, and “gives the show a new kind of balance.”

Higher stakes won’t stop their biting wit, however, and Bishil insisted that they’ll actually get funnier. “We just did a scene that has got to be the funniest scene I think we’ve ever had together.” We can’t wait to watch that one!

Alice Quinn has been something of a loner since she became a niffin – and then returned! – so it’s fitting that actress Olivia Taylor Dudley was alone for her interview. After expressing how grateful she was to have gotten to play so many versions of one character, she delved into her journey for season three and her relationship with Quentin. “There’s a side of Alice that’s angry as a woman that somebody controlled [her].”

Even though she’s pissed off, “she’s forgetting what it’s like to be a niffin as well.” The challenges of returning to her humanity might just be further complicated by the Lampry business and the rest of her time spent as a niffin. “I hope this season we get to find out some juicy stories about that.” In the meantime? “She just wants magic back. She wants off this planet. She probably wants to kick Quentin in the balls.”

The Magicians returns to Syfy in January 2018.