‘The Institute’s Alfie Allen Reveals Inspiration for Tech Bro Newcomer in Season 2

The Institute has returned for the start of its second season, and in Sunday’s (November 8) premiere, there’s a new foil for the escaped kids to grapple with: Nolan Reeves (Alfie Allen), a billionaire tech guru whose AI is being used by the Institute’s precognition chamber to help root out apocalyptic scenarios and send the kids hunting for the hinges.

For Alfie Allen, he didn’t have to look far for real-life inspiration for the character’s darkly ambitious attitude.

“[There’s] a certain someone who I think the name kind of echoes in its similarity,” the actor told TV Insider. “Nolan Reeves was somebody that I tried to slyly base him around a little bit.”

However, Allen also turned to another, perhaps surprising, source for guidance on his new TV alter ego. “I chose to go in my own direction with it. I watched a documentary called How I Became an Apocaloptimist … What became evident in watching the documentary was the way the guy who was making it just wanted to show the negatives and the positives, and do the positives outweigh the negatives? That was something that helped me build a more human aspect of this kind of dark character who really believes that he’s doing the world good by bringing his power and influence and AI into the world.”

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Allen was familiar with The Institute, both the MGM+ series and the Stephen King book upon which the first season is based, before joining the series, and he was energized by the prospect of facing the blend of its supernatural structure with the concerns of so many in our 21st-century reality.

“It was cool. I was interested in having the world of AI tech, obviously, being central to him and his existence within the show, in and out of the world and what he represented outside of that and what’s going on in the world right now,” he said. “This is a man who is looking forward, and what represents moving forward for him is these human beings who have these supernatural abilities, and that’s something that, with all of the power, money, and influence that he has, he will never have.”

MGM+

Allen added that he also enjoyed being “the older man amongst these kinds that represent the future and how that might make one feel, emotionally, as a human being.”

Keep tuned to The Institute Season 2 to see what’s to come from Nolan Reeves and the rest of the characters as the series continues.

The Institute, Sundays, MGM+