Posted in: TNT, TV | Tagged: The Librarians, The Librarians: The Next Chapter

The Librarians: The Next Chapter: Olivia Morris on Joining Franchise

TNT's The Librarians: The Next Chapter star Olivia Morris spoke with Bleeding Cool about joining the franchise's universe, working with Showrunner/EP Dean Devlin, and more.

Any time an actor gets to be a part of a major franchise like The Librarians, it bears a bit of weight, and it's something Olivia Morris is all too familiar with. Luckily, she was able to lean on the invaluable resource as creator and showrunner Dean Devlin to help her make that transition as Lysa Pascal, the genius scientist of the team in the franchise's latest spinoff The Next Chapter, which follows a new group led by Vikram Chamberlain (Callum McGowan), a Librarian from 1847 who finds himself in present day in the Belgrade area with only six months to clean up his mess while going on new historical and magical misadventures. Morris spoke to Bleeding Cool about casting, what previous canon Devlin told her to study, and leaning on him as a resource.

Olivia Morris on Entering the Brave New World of 'The Librarians: The Next Chapter'

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'The Librarians: The Next Chapter', and how did you get involved?

It started as every job does, with just an email in my inbox. I remember reading the script for the first time, the first episode, and thinking, "This is absolutely mental!" [laughs]. It was such an exciting script, because I was on a job at the time in a gritty thriller, and to suddenly read this, I was enthralled. It also sounded familiar to me, and I realized it was a show I hadn't watched, but I certainly was aware of it. It was so, honestly in a word, "Delightful!" As an introduction to the library and to 'The Librarians,' I was ready to see where it took me, because it was clearly such a big world already before I even arrived. There are three movies, a whole TV show, and it's such a joy to get to come into something with such a wonderful legacy. It was a bit daunting, but I hope we've done it justice and continued what you know the original 'Librarian' started.

Was there like a manual you had to look into, or certain episodes you were told to check out to get the gist of the entire world of the franchise?

Yeah, Dean [Devlin] told us a few he wanted us to watch, part of the first [series], and then like the finales. There was the episode with Father Christmas [Season one, episode four: 'And Santa's Midnight Run']. he wanted us to watch, and there was one with the D.O.S.A. (Department of Statistical Anomalies), and there's a bunch we watched. It was in the scripts for us, because they all served as our manual like and also, it didn't hurt that we had Dean on set with us for the first few episodes, and he is our manual. He's the "Encyclopedia of The Librarians,' so to have him in the first few weeks of filming, any questions, queries, or confusions, he was your guy. He was so wonderful at meeting us with the same amount of curiosity. With Dean, it wasn't, "Well, it's this, this, and this." It was, "What do you want it to be? How can we make this your show as well as it being the show that we know?" Yes, I would say, "Dean's our manual."

What's it like having Dean as a creative and showrunner?

Dean is amazing. He's got so many projects that have been so successful throughout his career. To this day, I am always so impressed with how passionate Dean is about this project and how ['The Librarians'] is his baby. He's been around from the beginning, he cares a lot, and whenever you're talking to the people at the top, they're often busy, because so much is happening. Having a showrunner who is prepared to be as present as he is was immediately evident and so useful, because the show is massive. It's mammoth and every episode is somewhere new, and it never stands still, and it's super energetic. [Dean] being at the helm made it less scary, I would say.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter, which also stars Bluey Robinson and Jessica Green, premieres its first two episodes on May 25-26 and airs Mondays on TNT.

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