Shadow and Bone season 2 is here and one of the more exciting aspects of this season is the sheer amount of time we get to spend with the Crows. More specifically spending time with Jesper (Kit Young) as he navigates a new relationship with Wylan (Jack Wolfe). All while trying to grapple with his own powers and understanding of who he is.
In the midst of the chaos happening around them, Jesper and Wylan find time to explore their relationship together and actually take the time with one another to grow their love for one another. So I asked about the joy in bringing a storyline like that to life in a show like Shadow and Bone.
At the round table conversation for season 2 of Shadow and Bone, I asked both Young and Wolfe about this relationship and its importance to their characters. And for Wolfe, it’s about exploring their love for each other as well as their own arcs within the fantasy genre.
“I think actually what you said hits the nail in the head as to why it’s important to me,” Wolfe said. “And I’ve said it quite a lot of times, but it just really matters to me that there gets to be a character like Wylan and other characters like Jesper who get to engage in what is just a really playful, sort of loving relationship amidst complete chaos. I think in the fantasy genre, you don’t often get to see characters who also get to be dangerous and badass and do bad things, and also fall in love in a world where their sort of sexuality isn’t a part of their journey, but their relationship is. That’s really cool to me. And then in finding that, I think I was just so lucky to be working with someone like Kit, who was so open, so warm, so receptive, and I just loved watching him work and learning and then being a part of that I think was really special for me.”
Giving Jesper a new love
In season 1, we got to see Jesper explore his time with the Crows while unpacking a lot about himself. One of the things that never was in question was Jesper’s sexuality and his openness about who he loves was just something accepted by the Crows and not questioned. So when he is struggling with his Grisha heritage, we’re focused there instead of worrying about anyone tearing down Jesper for who he loves.
For Young, he agreed with a lot of what Wolfe said about Jesper and Wylan’s relationship and dove in more to explore the importance of it in a show like Shadow and Bone. “It’s great that because I got the luxury, I think out of all of us, to have a season where I just get to discover who the guy is,” he said. “And so then when you get paired up with your person, you are forced to reveal other bits and other elements of who that person is and discover different things and try and unlock things for each other. And there was a lot of anticipation for us developing this relationship and playing it out on screen. But I think also we just got really lucky that there was a lot of care from everybody behind us and this isn’t for nothing that we cared.”
Young went on to talk about how the cast and creatives cared about doing Jesper and Wylan’s story justice. “And I think that I can speak for everyone here when we all really care about doing it well, and we are invested in its success,” Young said. “And that isn’t how it always is. I’ve worked with people in the past where they, it’s not saying one person cares or doesn’t care, but there’s different levels of commitment. And that has an effect. And I think hopefully what you see is something that we are already proud of because we’ve put our blood, sweat, and tears into it. And it’s just a joy to do. So wherever it can go next, if we get the chance to keep going, then you know, we’re all game, we’re all excited to do it.”
Shadow and Bone is back with season 2 on Netflix now!
(Featured image: Netflix)
