The Ark showrunners and lead star tease tension and danger in season 2 (Exclusive)

The Ark season 1 left Ark-1 in a dire situation. The explosion from the planet that was supposed to be a new home for our characters has destroyed the ship. They had no choice but to turn to Maddox on Ark-15 for help.

While Maddox has agreed to help, we know that there will be stipulations. Maddox only cares about survival, which makes her such an intriguing character. She is the complete opposite of Garnet, who wants to see every member of her team survive.

As we head into The Ark season 2, we sat down with showrunners and creators Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner and lead actress Christie Burke to discuss what to expect and how decisions are made.

Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner share how decisions are made in The Ark season 2

Winter Is Coming: The Ark season 2 is bigger. It’s more dramatic and intense from the very start. How did you go about building that intensity?

Dean Devlin: Right off the bat we see Garnet give this little speech to others about how much they mean to her. It’s one of my favorite moments of the entire season, and it comes right off the top. And Christie nails it. It also sets up the intensity that they have for each other now, and so that intensity gets reflected in our stories and in our production value.

WIC: We know people have to die, but we don’t want to lose anyone. How did you go about choosing who would have to die after the events of season 1?

Jonathan Glassner: We came into the writer’s room and said we ended the last season with a ship that’s badly damaged. Parts are completely blown away. We can’t just come back and say everybody’s fine. It’s just too much of a cheat. So, which character do we have the least to do with or left to do with in their story arc? Which ones do we need the most? And we based it entirely on that.

We love all our characters, and we love all our actors. It wasn’t an easy decision, because we didn’t want to let anybody go. We decided that the person—or people—who go were just those who had ridden their story to a conclusion.

Christie Burke talks Garnet's journey in The Ark

WIC: Garnet has already had some huge development, and there’s still clearly more to come. The Arc knows her secret, and she’s overcome the fear. Now she’s proven herself to be a leader. What’s that been like for you taking charge?

Christie Burke: I think it’s awesome. I keep saying this, but Jonathan, Dean, and the writers did an amazing job this season making her not just a leader, but a person. I feel like you get to the end of this season and you have a feel of who Garnet is fully as opposed to just being this one thing. As gets to go deeper into relationships, whether that be romantic or something else. She gets to be a person who has feelings, and we get to see that play out, which I’m really excited for.

WIC: The pressure is on for Garnet this season. She needs to deal with the fallout of the planet exploding. She needs to keep her people safe and needs to find a new home. What was that like to play?

CB: I was just like ‘oh my gosh, I get to do it again?’ It was so exciting. I had some unfinished business with her. There’s so much I want to see for Garnet. I want to see her fall in love and to find people that matter to her. Some of that may happen this season, some of it may not. There are some incredible events.

I just feel lucky. I didn’t feel pressure. I was just excited to get back on the spaceship.

DD: It’s interesting because the character of Garnet is the leader on the show, but Christie is kind of the leader behind the scenes on set. She organizes rehearsals, and she gets everyone fired up about the scenes they’re going to do. I think these off-camera relationships that have developed are so genuine and intense that they form on the screen. I think our cast really does respect Garnet and Christie, and I think you see that on camera.

Developing the character we love to hate: Maddox

WIC: Dean and Jonathan, you’ve created this sort of yin and yang with Garnet and Maddox. They have two different minds and personalities, and they have two different styles of leadership. I actually love how you’ve created Maddox and brought us this villain of sorts. How did you go about creating this character we love to hate?

JG: Any good villain has to be believable in some way. If they don’t have some logic to what they’re doing, then they’re just moustache twirlers. The difference is Maddox wants to protect herself, and Garnet wants to protect everybody.

DD: Maddox also wants to be admired. She wants to be in power and have everyone bow down to her, and Garnet doesn’t care at all what people think about her. She cares about getting things accomplished, and sometimes that is a real benefit because she’s not worried about politics. Sometimes, she doesn’t think about how people are going to react to a decision.

The Ark season 2 premieres on Wednesday, July 17 at 10/9c on Syfy.

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