‘The Librarians: The Next Chapter’ Boss Introduces New Characters, Talks Christian Kane’s Return & More

Magic is back on TNT with this spinoff of the popular The Librarians premiering on Sunday, May 25. With The Next Chapter, Dean Devlin returns as showrunner and introduces a new batch of so-called Librarians tasked with keeping dangerous supernatural artifacts from falling into the wrong hands.

Below, read Devlin’s thoughts about the newest franchise series and some of his older creations.

How do you feel about returning on TNT which first introduced a trio of fantasy adventure TV movies, The Librarians, starting in 2004?

Dean Devlin: We’re back home!

Do you consider the new show a spinoff or a sequel?

It’s a spinoff, another story that’s taking place in the universe of The Librarians.

Was the idea of a spinoff in your head for a while?

Yeah! We’ve worked in Serbia on a couple of the series, and I had this idea of, “What if there was a Librarian story set in Europe, while the other Librarian story continued in Portland?” So we set it up and it was just a thrill to be back in that world again.

Aleksandar Letic

How is The Next Chapter different from the franchise’s past movies and series? What’s the time period?

Well, it takes place today, but it centers around Vikram Chamberlain [Callum McGowan], a Librarian from 1847 who is on a mission to conquer a bad guy. He got stuck in a time bubble, and he got rescued in the current time, by librarian Jacob Stone, played by Christian Kane.

Fans will be very happy to see Christian Kane again, I expect. He does tend to show up in a number of Dean Devlin shows.

I hope so! He’s definitely my good luck charm without a doubt. [Laughs] So, once Vikram is rescued, he desperately wants to go back home, but he is told that if he would do that, everyone in this timeline would die. He doesn’t listen, because he’s the Librarian who was naughty. He tries to bring magic back to his old [Library] Annex that he had in Serbia, but by doing so, he actually spills magic out into the world. And he’s tasked with having to clean up the mess he’s made and he finds some people to help him. And that starts this whole new adventure of the next chapter of The Librarians.

Who are these new characters?

Vikram was born in India, from British parents, and he was assigned to Serbia to combat someone who was collecting magical artifacts for evil purposes. He was given an annex in Serbia, and while he was there, he fell in love with the woman who was betrothed to the man he was tasked to stop. Her name was Anya Pascal.

Next, there’s Lysa Pascal [Olivia Morris]. [Here’s a teaser: Check out the portrait of a young woman in the Annex that had become a museum.] After losing her parents in an accident as a teenager, Lysa became myopically focused on science to try and create predictive algorithms that could therefore prevent someone dying in a tragic accident in the future. She wants to be the next Steve Jobs, and she’s working on an IPO to start the new company, but she really thinks she could change the world if she could solve the riddle of chaos and predict events before they happen. But on her upcoming adventure, she learns that there are things beyond science’s explanations, and she becomes reluctantly enamored with the world of the library. And because of her background in science, she’s able to fill in for Vikram and explain the stuff he does not know that happened in the last 200 years.

Former professor Connor Green [Bluey Robinson] has an encyclopedic brain when it comes to historical facts, but what he kept seeing throughout history was unexplained events that led him to believe that magic could be true. He had stumbled on this conspiracy theory that there’s an organization called The Librarians that is housing the world’s greatest magical artifacts. So when he was discredited and no longer allowed to teach, he brought his theories about magic online, created a huge following of fans who helped pay for his adventures, and went around the world trying to find information about the magical Library. Because of his knowledge of history, he also can fill in the blanks of the last 200 years historically for Vikram.

And there’s a new guardian!

Yes, Charlie Cornwell [Jessica Green] was recruited to be a new Guardian for the Librarians in the original show, but for some reason, she was not chosen and she was heartbroken. In the pilot of this series, she gets a call from Jacob Stone saying, “You’re going to get a second chance. I need you to come here and be the guardian for Vikram for these six months that he’s being given to clean up the mess he made.” For her now, it’s a passion. She’s overly enthusiastic and rigorous in her job.

Aleksandar Letic

Now that Jacob Stone has chosen the new crop, what’s his responsibility to the keepers of the artifacts?

Basically he grants them the right to continue working for the Librarians for the next six months, but six months only. So, he’s monitoring them to make sure that he hasn’t made a horrible mistake.

What can you say about the villain Vikram tried to stop?

He’s General Gregor [Adnan Hasković] and he has a cult of magic fanatics called Gregor’s Hammer.

Should I assume that each week there’s a new magical villain while there’s an ongoing threat from Gregor who wants to be dictator if he gets ahold of the powerful artifacts?

Well, the concept in both the original Librarians and the new show is that magic is corruptive. Even the Librarians can get corrupted by the power of magic, which is why they’re not supposed to use it — though they sometimes do. So each week, we follow some type of magic that Vikram spilled back into the world that he has to deal with.

Will we see any other returning characters pop up?

Not this season.

Will the spinoff have the same tone as the original, a mix of fantasy, action, humor, and monsters?

It definitely has that, but there’s also a different energy to it, because Vikram is from another time. He is very much like the old Noah Wyle character as he’s a fish out of water for a completely different reason. Probably the biggest difference is that Vikram secretly longs to go back to his old life, and that causes a huge conflict for him and a conflict between him and the team. But I think the fun of this show is that it’s magical, it’s adventurous, and all the episodes at their core have a heart. I can’t think of any other show like this one, with the exception of Doctor Who. I think this Librarians series is totally unique for stuff made in the U.S.

Who’s the show aimed at?

It’s no specific demographic. Young people like it, older people like it, intellectuals like it, working class people like it; it’s all over the map. And again and again, we hear from fans who say this is the show that their family gathers together to watch it with them.

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So, you want to keep it in this tone that families can enjoy. It’s not too creepy or scary.

Well, the thing is, when you work in escapist entertainment, which has basically been my entire career, it’s often looked down upon as a lesser art form, and maybe it is. … But when you go through times of enormous strife, like pandemics or economic chaos or political strife, the idea of being able to just escape it all for an hour a week is really a valuable thing. And the people who love these shows, they are not just entertaining, it becomes an important part of their lives. It allows them to get away from everything else. Some shows are there to teach lessons and to show the harsh reality of life. This is a show to escape the same harsh reality of life.

Are you working on getting a streaming platform?

Well, this is really all about TNT. And we want people to know that this show is happening because of TNT, and so we want TNT to be supported. We’re hoping that the fans will come and watch it on TNT. Obviously, if they have a subscription, they’ll be able to see it on the TNT app and catch up whenever they want. I’m sure at some point it will be on a streaming platform. But right now, we’re really focused on our partner. The first Librarians movie was made just over 20 years ago on TNT, and so, for us to be back where this franchise was born is such a gift for us. It feels right. I think people running TNT, from the highest level down, are incredibly creative. They’ve got a really interesting game plan going forward, and we’re excited to be a key part of that plan.

Former Librarians star Noah Wyle is an exec producer, correct?

Yes. There would be no Librarians without Noah Wyle. I’ve had the fortune of being able to work with him fairly consistently since 2004, and it’s been one of the greatest partnerships of my career. To have him on Leverage: Redemption has been just the gift that keeps on giving.

Are you going to shop your Kane-starrer Almost Paradise around for a fourth season? Or is the Philippines’ beach crime show over? [The show had good numbers despite being bumped from WGN America to IMDb TV, which then became Amazon Freevee, all platforms that are now gone.]

We are currently shopping it around. It’s a very unusual situation where we have a show that might actually be the most popular show I’ve ever made, and yet we don’t have a home for it right now. Yeah, it’s crazy how many people have watched the show. If you go online on any of my social media, not a day goes by without two dozen people saying, “When are we getting another season of Almost Paradise?” So, hopefully we’re going to find a new home for it in the next few months.

Are there any other projects in the works?

We’re about to start shooting Season 3 of The Ark. And we’re watching closely the numbers at Amazon on Leverage: Redemption Season 3 and hoping that we get a fourth season.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter, Series Premiere, Sunday, May 25, 9/8c, TNT