Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for The Librarians: The Next Chapter season 1, episode 1, "And the Deadly Drekavac"!

A memorable figure from the Librarians' past has found himself out of time and working with a new team in Devlin on Leverage: Redemption, reprising Jacob Stone in the season premiere.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter begins with the introduction of Callum McGowan's Vikram Chamberlain, the Librarian of the mid 1800s whose Annex was tethered to Belgrade, Serbia. When his efforts to put a stop to a dictatorial regime leader lead to him landing in the present day, Vikram inadvertently unleashes magic across the continent, reigniting a whole host of new threats and requiring the assistance of a new group of heroes. Among the new is that of Blue Robinson's Connor Green, a well-educated historian who was ostracized from the world of academia due to his desire to prove magic is real.

In honor of the show's premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Callum McGowan and Bluey Robinson to discuss The Librarians: The Next Chapter. The pair opened up about their eagerness to the adventurous world of the TNT franchise, as well as offering a preview of their character arcs as the new lead Librarian and historian, the group dynamics to come amongst them, and a progress update on the already-confirmed season 2.

Playing Vikram Is Like "Every Kind Of Shakespearean Character All In One"

Connor Is On A Journey Of Discovery For What His New Life Will Be

Going back to the first movie that launched the franchise, audience's main point of entry into the world of The Library has been that of Noah Wyle's Flynn Carsen and his insatiable appetite for education. Now, coming into The Librarians: The Next Chapter, Vikram proves to share some personality traits with his in-universe successor, particularly his self-assurance in his adventures and his capabilities as the titular hero.

In reflecting on the creation of Vikram and his personality, McGowan pointed to Devlin and his writers room as being the biggest asset for fleshing out the protagonist, praising the scripts for having Vikram "so well-formed on the page", while also chuckling as he said that "it'd be kind of rude of me to take all the credit". McGowan and Robinson also joked that the former is "very much Vikram as a person", being "as moronic and dumb and stupid as he is", but calling it "a joy" to play the character.

...if you ask any actor, 'Would you like to play that?', the answer is pretty obvious.

"He is unabashed, he is confident, he is a fool, but he is romantic, is a hero," McGowan described. "He's every kind of Shakespearean character all in one. So, if you ask any actor, 'Would you like to play that?', the answer is pretty obvious."

As for Robinson, he similarly points to the scripts for The Librarians: The Next Chapter as offering him a guiding light for how to play Connor's arc, which he points to being one of discovery as "the old world he knew is kind of no more". Having previously been kicked out of academia for his belief in magic, Robinson describes Connor as "searching for something" that he "believes in his heart that he's right", and is driven "to prove it".

Once Connor comes upon The Library in the season premiere, and subsequently becomes part of the team with Vikram, Olivia Morris' Lysa and Jessica Green's Charlie, Robinson notes that the biggest hurdle for his character then becomes, "What do you do when you can't spread that information and tell everyone what you found?". Ultimately, The Next Chapter star teases that Connor "feels like he's found his home", and that his time working for The Library "brings him closer to the group, and closer to magic".

"He feels like, 'Wow, I have it now. Am I going to be able to keep this? Am I going to be able to explore it more?'," Robinson explained. "You can't really go back to normal life after you discover a magic library, can you? [Chuckles]"

The Librarians Will Unlock New Layers In Each Other In Alternate Pairings

"...Liv Had The Best Analogy About It, 'We Are A Broken Table And We're All One Of The Legs'..."

While the show is very much about the three Librarians and their Guardian going on magical investigations, both the The Next Chapter often find their characters split off into pairs, which allows for new dynamics to be showcased. Reflecting on building the group dynamics with one another, McGowan called it "a very rare thing" in his time as an actor in that "somehow we kind of clicked from the very first episode".

McGowan also went on to share the analogy Morris came up with for the characters during the show's production, in which they're all "a broken table, and we're all one of the legs", during which "we all try and balance each other out, and we make ourselves whole". The second episode they shot together, in particular, offered an early example of such a unique pairing, with Vikram and Connor venturing on their own for a journey aboard the Tito Train.

For McGowan, this episode presented him with a great opportunity to connect with Robinson, "an actor I'd met a week before", and to really explore "this Connor-Vikram relationship that is our own". "When it's just me and Liv, that's our entity," McGowan explained. "And when it's me and Jess, that's a very different thing again. So, it's just a beautiful thing that somehow we've managed to create, and none of us can explain how that happened."

Robinson largely echoed McGowan's sentiments, while also recalling the train episode as being "a mad one to film", primarily due to the practical issues that arose from filming on the "very special, fancy train from the '70s" that has "narrow corridors". "Lugging all the camera equipment and people and everything in from one scene to the other was madness," Robinson described. "We did so much overtime because no one anticipated how long and how tricky it would have been."

While careful not to share too much information regarding said episode's story, beyond that it "plays with time, and present tense, past tense, future sort of thing", Robinson acknowledged that he "and Cal really bonded on that episode", or "trauma bonded", as he said with a chuckle.

We just locked in, and it really helped for our characters, as well, because as we got closer, we could play with our characters, and find new interactions and new little idiosyncrasies for our dynamic.

McGowan & Robinson Had Very Heartwarming Reasons To The Library Universe

"...Being A Part Of That World Is, Foremost, A Lot Of Fun."

With the Librarians fanbase being a very ionate group, particularly in the wake of the original show's cancellation, it would be understandable if some of The Next Chapter's cast found themselves intimidated to the universe. For McGowan, he found the show to be "traditional storytelling at its finest", offering "escapism for every audience member".

"I think that in this kind of world where things are a bit doom and gloom, for 45 minutes, people can escape into their imaginations and exists in a world where magic exists, where the heroes are heroes because they read books and anything is possible," McGowan expressed. "I think that's what Dean and the team at Electric do so well, and I think being a part of that world is, foremost, a lot of fun."

Robinson, on the other hand, found "the bond between the characters" as being one of the biggest draws to star in the series, particularly when looking at "how they start off the season" and "how they evolve and develop". "Even though this is escapism, it's fantasy, it's fun, it's a wild ride for people to just get lost in, there's a lot of heart in our show, as well," Robinson explained, "which people might be surprised about, but I like that. I like that balance a lot."

Vikram & Lysa's Arc Will Be Key To His Timeline Choices

"...I'm Really Scared Of Saying Something I Shouldn't Say."

Beyond his timeline displacement, one of the biggest plot points to come from the first two Librarians: The Next Chapter episodes is the tease of Lysa being the descendant of someone from Vikram's past, as well as having ties to the villainous General Gregor. When asked about how this arc will evolve over the course of the 12-episode first season, McGowan is careful not to share too much, itting "I haven't spoken to Dean about what I can and can't say", with Robinson laughing as notes the showrunner himself "loves accidentally giving too much information".

I don't want to say too much, because I don't want to spoil it, because it's such a beautiful thing about the series, about my kind of character arc, about Vikram finally accepting that maybe the future is where he belongs, and then what keeps him here. And yeah, I really want to say, but I'm really scared of saying something I shouldn't say.

More About The Librarians: The Next Chapter

Produced by Electric Entertainment, The Librarians: The Next Chapter centers on Vikram Chamberlain (Callum McGowan), a “Librarian” from the past who time traveled from 1847 and now finds himself stuck in the present. When Vikram returns to his castle in Belgrade, Serbia and discovers that it is now a museum, he inadvertently releases magic across the continent.

With the help of a new team of eclectic heroes, including a savant in world history, a scientific genius, and a highly skilled Guardian, Vikram has only six months to clean up the mess he made. Throughout the season, the team will embark on fantastical adventures, including a surprise reroute to a manor where Agatha Christie-styled murders take place, a time-travel back to the days of King Arthur at Camelot and even an encounter with the first-ever vampire.

Check out our other Librarians: The Next Chapter interviews with:

• Olivia Morris
• Dean Devlin

New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air Monday nights on TNT!

Source: ScreenRant Plus