It’s not easy to be tasked with saving the world, but that’s what Grant MacLaren (Eric McCormack) and his team of “Travelers” have been assigned.
If Season 1 wasn’t brain-bending enough for you, Season 2 of Travelers ups the ante in a big way. MacLaren and the team are still trying to navigate their 21st century lives (which have become considerably more complicated) while saving humanity from a future dystopia.
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In this sophomore season, the Travelers face even more obstacles: a deadly virus, a group called The Faction and a mysterious new Traveler (Enrico Colantoni) whose intentions are murky, at best. All of this while dealing with the fact that they’re inhabiting present-day host bodies. Complicated enough for you?
Global News sat down with McCormack and Nesta Cooper (Carly) to talk Travelers Season 2, The Faction and what fellow Canadian Enrico Colantoni is bringing to the show. Here are some tidbits about the upcoming season.
Sometimes, the show feels like one big Canadian reunion
Travelers shoots in Vancouver, and consists of a large number of Canadians in its cast and crew (almost all of them). McCormack, of course, is from Toronto, and Colantoni is also from Ontario’s capital. There’s a certain camaraderie among the Canucks that can’t be faked.
“When I first got to Vancouver, I did mostly American productions,” said McCormack. “This show is different, this show is for the world… but knowing that the people making it are entirely Canadian, I’m full of pride.”
Mississauga-born Cooper agrees. “I’m that person, especially when I’m in LA and I’m around my American friends… we’ll see something with Will Arnett in it, and I’ll be like, ‘He’s Canadian!’ I think that Canada produces such awesome art, and the fact that most of us are Canadian is just another bragging point.”
“It’s fun to rub it in American actors’ faces,” joked McCormack. “They get upset that we’re taking over.”
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Enrico Colantoni’s role is still a mystery
Colantoni joins the Canadian party this season, and McCormack and Cooper are mum about what his character is up to.
“It’s one of those things where the audience will meet him in the very first moment of Season 2,” said McCormack. “They’ll wonder ‘Who is this guy? Don’t we have questions about this guy? What happened in the barn?’ We’re going to make you wait a little bit. What we find out about Enrico’s character within the first five minutes of the show is pretty awesome.”
So is he a good guy? A bad guy? We’ll have to wait to find out.
“He’ll swing more to one side than the other, let me just put it that way,” laughed McCormack.
Adapting to the 21st century is still a huge challenge
Even though the Travelers have had some time to get accustomed to their new bodies, they’re still coming to terms with the reality around them. Not everything is as easy as it sounds, and travelling in time to a totally different era adds another layer of difficulty to just existing.
Carly, for example, is in the host body of a stay-at-home mom with an abusive “baby daddy,” and her Traveler consciousness is in a relationship with MacLaren, who’s also caught between his mind and his body. Carly, a strong person in her “real body,” is forced to deal with being perceived as weak in the 21st century. The complexity is enough to make your head spin.
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“It’s my abusive baby daddy, and my baby in general that complicate matters,” said Cooper. “But the hardest part for Carly is understanding that there’s a lot about the 21st century that we don’t realize. We’ve only read about it. Throughout Season 1, she starts realizing how the world functions, how society works, and how people treat each other, especially as a diverse single mother without an education. Her biggest challenge is facing people; she keeps wondering ‘Why isn’t anybody listening to me when I’m asking for help?'”
The Faction will be The Travelers’ biggest obstacle
Because the Travelers come from a version of the future where the Faction doesn’t exist, they’re not familiar with the potential threat they pose. The Faction — comprised of insurgents against Travelers — seeks to unseat The Director (the head of the Travelers) and allow humanity to return to their own decision-making. Ultimately, they believe, a species should be able to dictate their own outcome.
In Season 2 the Faction steps up its mission, and it sounds like its power has only grown greater.
“The Faction opposes everything we do,” said McCormack. “It undermines everything we do. The Quantum Frame machine, which you saw in the last episodes of Season 1, also features very heavily this season. Where it is, who has it, what it can do… it can do things that people nowadays have no idea what to do with. It can be used for evil, so that’s the big question this season.”
Secrets are a big theme of Season 2
With all the time travelling and the layering, it’s not a surprise that every character is harbouring secrets, usually from one another. That can’t be a good thing considering they’re supposed to be a team.
“For MacLaren, and probably everybody else, secrets are carrying the day,” said McCormack. “I am doing things with and for my present-day wife that go above and beyond my job. I can’t tell anybody…”
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“Carly definitely goes into this season with a rage to her,” agrees Cooper. “Like a really, really, really really hidden desperation. She has now lost the man she could count on. What can she count on now? Her morals? Her child? She’s trying to figure out how to do the right thing.”
Even though the show can be very dark, that makes it very positive.”
‘Travelers’ Season 2 premieres on Showcase Monday, Oct. 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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