‘The Librarians: The Next Chapter’ Star Callum McGowan Talks Finale Surprises & Season 2 Clues

The Librarians: The Next Chapter is wrapping up its first season – no worries, Season 2 is on its way — with decisions to be made by the returning librarian Jacob Stone (Christian Kane) about the future of the Annex and its new team, time-traveling librarian Vikram Chamberlain (Callum McGowan), his guardian Charlie Cornwall (Jessica Green), and interns Connor Green (Bluey Robinson) and Lysa Pascal (Olivia Morris).

As they await the verdict of their future as anti-magic crusaders, Vikram and his new friends must literally save the world from the ravages of Vikram’s old enemy, General Bogdan Gregor (Adnan Hakovic), a “maniac” who plans to be the world’s dictator.

McGowan answers questions about the final storylines, the growth of his character, who will return, and more.

As The Next Chapter’s first season comes to a close, how would you describe the evolution of Vikram, the rogue librarian who only wants to go home to Serbia in 1847 to be with his love, Anya? What’s changed him and his relationship with his temporary library team?

Callum McGowan: There’s two parts. First, facing the consequences of his actions. In his previous life, he didn’t have a lot of that to be fair. And obviously, meeting the other three librarians who have confided in him along the way and showed him a different way to live his life. Vikram is a man that wears many, many masks, and he’s kind of hidden himself away from people, and then these three amazing people he meets in the future show him a different way that he can live.

What is the main thread of Season 1’s final two episodes? Who is the team’s major foe?

It’s my old nemesis that we met in the beginning of the series, General Gregor, who has, with the help of [the magical artifact] Gregor’s Hammer, in the future been able to find a linkway through art and then escape the time bubble that Vikram thought had trapped him in. Vikram meets him again in Episode 11, and that’s a good link to the finale.

And it’s interesting what Gregor considers to become Vikram’s weakness: “For the first time in your life, you love your friends; your choice will be to sacrifice your friends and beat me or save your friends and release me.”

Yes indeed. The old Vikram would make a different decision, but we see him putting other people first. We see him wrestling with his own selfishness and self-importance throughout the series. And then we finally see this emotional change in him beginning in these last few episodes.

Is Vikram being selfish or unselfish when he vows that he will go on the dangerous anti-magic missions without his team?

I think there is a sense of his own ego getting in his own way, which has never served him in the past. So we see him going on this kind of emotional journey throughout the first season, and we see these little clues of him letting go of his old ways, but also finding new information that keeps him in the future.

So, as part of the new Vikram, is he afraid he’ll hurt the people on his team if they go with him?

Yes, history’s taught him that lesson. I think that Vikram has constantly hurt those around him, and that is why he puts up such a wall around his heart. It’s that no matter what he seems to do, he can’t get out of his own way, and, in doing so, he hurts the people that he loves the most.

Why is Gregor so powerful in the season finale?

In the first episode, you saw me stopping General Gregor from getting the Sword of Mars by trapping us in this time bubble, but I’m too late to stop him from receiving this great weapon at the beginning of Episode 12. And so the main storyline of the season finale is our mission to try to get him away from this superpower, which is probably the most dangerous weapon in the world. It can control every single nuclear weapon on the planet, so he kind of holds the whole planet to ransom.

We’re always happy to see librarian Jacob Stone, as he returns to the Annex. Why is he back, and what is his task?

Jacob Stone has been watching over our team the entire first series to make sure that we don’t put too many feet wrong, and I think he’s only stepping in when we need him the most. With a baddie like Gregor, it can’t be left to a rogue librarian, an inexperienced guardian, and two members of the public. So the way I think about it is that he’s been watching from afar the entire first series and keeping an eye on us and making sure we don’t get into too much trouble.

How does Stone feel about Vikram, a very different kind of librarian than he is?

I think it’s Vikram’s kind of devil-may-care attitude that is very much against Jacob Stone’s. They’re polar opposites in that sense, and that’s why it’s so much fun to play with Christian.

When do we find out that the six-month internship of Vikram’s friends will be ending?

We find that out at the very beginning of Episode 12. Jacob Stone is visiting not only to lock Vikram into the main library but also to send my friends away. Luckily, a maniac with a weapon more powerful than nuclear bombs intercedes and allows us to do one last mission. Just so lucky. [Laughs.]

Is General Gregor trying to be the world’s ultimate dictator, which he announced early on?

Completely!

What role will Stone play in the story?

There’s a beautiful moment that I think the original fans will love, and well, any fan of the show itself, that at the moment when all seems lost, who should appear through the magic door but our beautiful Jacob Stone, who gives Vikram an artifact from the Library to do battle with General Gregor? I won’t say which weapon. It’s too exciting.

What did Stone have in mind for Vikram? Was he really going to be locked in the library?

Yes, indeed. He could’ve been an artifact, maybe have a job as a cleaner. The threat has always been that if Vikram didn’t get his job together, Jacob Stone would have no choice but to lock him away. He’s been a bit of a liability. So the stakes are high.

So a second season has been filming in Belgrade?

Yes, it started filming in February, and they finished recently.

Does everyone return from Season 1?

Yes, we are all returning.

Are there new and returning characters in Season 2?

Yes. There are some fantastic new characters, some returning characters from this season, and from our previous [original] show as well. I’d love to tell you who they are, but my hands would be taken away from me if I revealed things too early.

For such an amusing show, I was a bit teary at the end of the season. Without spoiling too much, it’s a very bittersweet ending, isn’t it?

It is, and I think that’s kind of a nod to the amazing world Dean Devlin has created and the amazing writers that we have that when we lean into those moments of emotion and sadness and resentment and regret that we lean in completely. We don’t shy away from it, and I think because we’ve earned the audience’s trust by making them feel for the last 45 minutes, being able to spin on a dime and show these characters as fully fleshed three-dimensional characters, allows us to go to those places where we can really empathize with them and see them as true people.

Speaking of fleshing out the main characters, we learned more about their backstories toward the season’s end. For instance, Connor was King Con at the annual convention of fans of the supernatural and magic. He was a big deal and very respected.

 Yes, indeed, and I think each character has that. There’s an inner sadness lurking behind all of these characters that I find so fascinating, and being able to play that with these three amazing actors is a joy to do every single day, and we explore that even further in the second series, especially concentrating on Lysa and Charlie. So we’ve had our chance to shine, and now it’s theirs.

What was your favorite episode or favorite scene? There’s so much fun on the show, and I said, bittersweetness.

I think that the very first episode, walking onto the set lit by candles and fire and then saying, “I am Vikram Chamberlain. I’m the Librarian,” will always be the most special memory of the show for me. And of course, I would have to say the finale because I get to fight Gregor in a very dramatic, beautiful way, and as you alluded to, that last scene in the library, it was a joy to play for an actor.

In the last moments of the season, there’s a promo for Season 2, in which a wild-haired guy with a bushy mustache bursts out of a tree. Any hints about who that is?

Yes indeed. I think the fans are going to be very excited about the link we made with the famous trilogy of movies and going back to this most magical world of Camelot, so I think they’ll be very excited for Series 2 when they finally see that last scene.

I assume you’re alluding to The Lord of the Rings there?

Yes, Indeed. There might be an actor we’ll recognize.

Is that character a villain for the second season or…

Ah, is he a villain? Is he a hero? Or are we all just villains and heroes, and we do good and bad things? You’ll have to wait and see.

How’s shooting been in Belgrade? Budapest was always the go-to place before, and now Belgrade in Serbia could be a comer.

Well, that’s what they used to say, but no, it’s been an absolute joy living here for six months and, obviously, five months last year, and yeah it’s a place that you’d never think you’d ever go to, and that’s the joy of being an actor: that you get taken to these amazing places, and you get to live there and experience different cultures and enjoy different people. It’s definitely the biggest joy of our job.

In the first season, of course, there are different time periods visited. Will that happen in the second season?

Yes, I believe there will be some, but I can’t obviously say too much…. I don’t think we’re done with Vikram’s relationship with Anya, so I think there will be something there.

Will Vikram feel at home finally in 2025? Will we find a man who finally feels, “Okay, this is where I am. I’m settled in. I’m going to learn more about the time?”

You’ll get both. Now that he’s fully committed to being in the future, we will see him enjoying some modern inventions, and he’ll start enjoying himself a bit more. But I think he will always be homesick. No matter how hard he tries, this world will never be his. And he’s just doing his best, really. and I think that’s quite a nice, beautiful thing to play.

Will there be any romances in the second season?

Oh, there may be some romances, there may not. We will have to wait and see. They might be too busy being librarians. But I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the direction we’re going in the new season. They’ve made it bigger, better, and more exciting, and I am really, really proud of it.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter, Season 1 Finale, August 4, 10/9c, TNT