Lasher is human in Mayfair Witches Season 2. Or is he? Jack Huston‘s enigmatic and dangerous character makes a “terrifying” return in Season 2, according to the stars in our New York Comic Con video interview (above). The upcoming season, premiering on Sunday, January 5, 2025, on AMC, is based on the second book in Anne Rice‘s Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, titled Lasher. “Rebirth of Lasher is the whole of the story of the second book, and we’re definitely drawing on that,” showrunner Esta Spalding confirms. And while Lasher’s more dangerous than before, Rowan (Alexandra Daddario) has become a force to be reckoned with.
Mayfair Witches tells the story of Rowan, a brilliant neurosurgeon who learns she’s from a long line of powerful witches. The Season 1 finale of the Immortal Universe’s witchy installment showed Rowan fulfilling the Mayfair family prophecy and giving birth to human Lasher, who was previously just a powerful spirit whose history with the Mayfairs stretches back hundreds of years. Lasher already started growing rapidly in the moments after his birth, and this supernatural growth will continue in the Season 2 premiere. Multiple actors will appear as the younger versions of Lasher in Episode 1, but the show has taken a small liberty by slightly slowing down the timeline of his growth.
“In the books, he grows really quickly in a matter of minutes. We’ve drawn it out a little bit,” Spalding reveals. By the end of the premiere, “Jack Huston emerges into our story and is there for the rest of the season,” she says.
Birthing Lasher means that Rowan “has all of the powers that Lasher had before,” Spalding notes. “That’s a really exciting part of the season.” Rowan can now control the weather and fire and other elements, and she also has an incredible ability to heal wounds and illnesses. Spalding says that Season 2 “is really the season where Rowan truly decides she’s a witch and leans into all that that means and is asking herself how much of the dark power of a witch she should use.”
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Everyone’s asking the hard questions this season. Tongayi Chirisa hints at a deep rift between Ciprien and Rowan in the new episodes as each of them focuses on revealing important truths in their individual lives. “I don’t know if feelings are his top priority right now, because he’s very distrusting of everyone around him,” Chirisa tells us. Sip is testing “who’s in his corner,” which leads him to question Rowan and his colleagues in the Talamasca leadership — the latter of whom he still suspects have been stifling his powers for years.
Related‘Mayfair Witches’ Trailer Reveals Ted Levine as Major Book Character (VIDEO)
Cast newcomer Alyssa Jirrels plays Moira Mayfair, who’s based on Mona Mayfair from the books. Moira is the sister of Tessa (Madison Wolfe), the young witch who died in Season 1. The mind-reading sister returns to get answers about her sister’s death and find out which of her family members (few of whom she really trusts) is responsible. Moira is the black sheep of the family and “brings an antagonistic force to Rowan,” according to Jirrels.
One person no one trusts is Cortland (Harry Hamlin). After the Season 1 finale revealed that he sexually assaulted niece Deirdre Mayfair (Annabeth Gish) in order to conceive Rowan (the fated 13th Mayfair witch), Rowan turned her father to stone. But Hamlin confirms above that he’s released from his statuesque prison in Season 2 and proceeds to have a “midlife crisis.” His own father, the deceased Julian Mayfair, is also a major player in Season 2 and played by The Silence of the Lambs star Ted Levine. Julian “tells a long section of his life” in the Lasher novel, “and we used a great deal of that,” Spalding says.
Mark Johnson, executive producer and the man in charge of AMC’s Immortal Universe that includes Interview With the Vampire and The Talamasca, says this season is all about “determinism.” “To what degree can you break what has already been foretold for your family, who you are, what can you get out of?” Johnson says above. “That’s the struggle that Rowan has within herself. Am I what this family is? Am I bound to follow these paths, or am I my own woman?”
Watch the full video interview above to learn more about Moira and Sip’s powers and how they expand this supernatural world, as well as details about Ben Feldman‘s introduction as book character Sam “Lark” Larkin and other book details they were determined to “honor” this season.
Mayfair Witches, Season 2 Premiere, Sunday, January 5, 9/8c, AMC, Streaming on AMC+
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