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NYCC '15: The Librarians Season 2 Panel Recap – And Can John Kim Play Amadeus Cho?

By Chris Hayden

Following a somewhat unexpected renewal for a second season, the cast of TNT's The Librarians swooped into New York Comic Con to deliver a sneak preview of the upcoming season, as well as tease some of the adventures we can look forward to beginning this November.

Joining the panel was Rebecca Romjin, known for her role as Mystique in the original X-Men film trilogy (and cameo in X-Men: First Class), who portrays Eve Baird on the show, along with the Librarians in training Christian Kane (Leverage, Angel) Lindy Booth (The Famous Jett Jackson), and John Kim (Neighbors), who play Jacob Stone, Cassandra Cillian and Ezekial Jones, respectively. John Larroquette (The 10^th Kingdom, Night Court) who plays the beloved Jenkins, rounded out the cast, who were also joined by Executive Producer Dean Devlin (Leverage).

In a relatively well-attended panel filled with enthusiastic fans, the panelists managed to maintain the playfulness and levity of the show while also displaying just how seriously they take it. When asked about how they have approached the relatively unknown backgrounds of each character, they promised more character development in the second season, with Christian Kane revealing that his character's past would be fully explored. When asked about the show's levity in comparison to the majority of contemporary TV, Dean Devlin made manifest with words the reason the The Librarians has such a dedicated fan base. Where most shows try to be dark and morally ambiguous, he says, he missed shows that exist for the love of the genre and that can be enjoyed by the whole family. It is this mixture of levity and drama that makes the show truly unique, and certainly one of the more entertaining gems of television to be enjoyed.

The panel was not without its laughs, however. When a fan asked which superhero characters the cast would like to portray on the big screen, Lindy Booth considered both Scarlet Witch and Poison Ivy before finally settling on Wolverine. John Kim voiced a desire to play Amadeus Cho, the newly revealed "Totally Awesome Hulk", while Christian Kane remarked that he'd be interested in playing Wolverine or Gambit on the big screen. John Larroquette did not have a hero he wanted to play, but rather lamented that the Martian Manhunter had yet to see the silver screen, a statement that elicited cheers from the crowd. Rebecca Romjin admitted that she'd already had her chance, describing her time as Mystique as an honor.

Fortunately for fans, myself included, Devlin and the cast were not shy about revealing tantalizing bits of info about season 2. One of the most notable was the confirmation that the season would see fictional characters and places would be brought to life through magic, with the season 2 trailer revealing Frankenstein's Monster, the lost city of Atlantis and the villain of the season, professor James Moriarty. While we've seen fictional characters before, notably in the season 1 episode "And The Fables of Doom", which featured a number of fairy tales, and the episode "And Santa's Midnight Run", featuring Bruce Campbell as the funniest Santa I've ever seen, these were self contained episodes, with this being the first time we will see them throughout the majority of a season.

Without revealing too much, Devlin presented that where the movies and first season were about preventing the release of magic into the world and containing it when it appeared, the second season will focus more on the consequences of its release as it becomes more and more entrenched in the real world. He also hinted that there would be a strong interconnection between the first and second seasons. The panel opened with a recap of sorts, with Devlin saying that every scene shown in the clip would be connected to season 2. The trailer for season 2, in addition to showing the fictional antagonists and locales we can look forward to, was also filled with action, laughs and more than a little Flynn Carsen, with Devlin saying that Noah Wyle's character would appear in about half of the season's episodes.

All in all, the second season of The Librarians looks like it will retain the fighting, fun and fantasy of the first season, while also delving deeper into the characters and exploring all of the fun that such a fantastic premise allows.

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