Quickly following from an impressive 1.3 million viewership for the Jan. 2 premiere of Beyond, Freeform’s first epidosic drama, it was announced that the show was going to be renewed for a second season.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Beyond is a one-hour show that follows Holden — a young man who wakes up from a coma after 12 years — and discovers new abilities that propel him into the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. Now he must try and figure out what happened to him during the missing dozen years; how to survive a world that changed while he was gone, and answer the question, why did this happen to him?
Stars of the series, Burkely Duffield, Jonathan Whitesell and Dilan Gwyn joined ComicBook.com for a live interview to discuss the show. One of the early fan theories included extra-terrestrials, which is something that was shot down quickly as an explanation as to how and why Holden has the powers that he does.
“No aliens and no ghosts,” Duffield said. “There is something interesting and not quite from this world that we will be explaining and diving in to the explanation of why this is happening and where these abilities have come to be from.”
Duffield previously told ComicBook.com that the audience can expect a show that has some of the traditional things they receive from a superhero show: powers, internal conflicts, and external combat while still staying nearer to things that could, with some suspension of disbelief, happen.
He has added that there is also a character arc that is involved with Holden discovering himself and a new exteral battle.
“It is a mix of both, I think he battles with the struggle between those two,” Duffield said. “He wakes up and wants everything to be the same but he soon figures out, as you see in the episodes, he knows that is not a possibility anymore.
“He struggles with that continuously througout the season of trying to figure out how he can gain that foundation of a normal life again to get back to that, with these new responsibilites that are getting thrown his way.”
The show co-stars Romy Rosemont as Diane Matthews, Michael McGrady as Tom Matthews, Jonathan Whitesell as Luke Matthews, Dilan Gwyn as Willa and Jeff Pierre (“Shameless”) as Jeff McArdle.
From Imperative Entertainment and Automatik, Beyond is created, written and executive produced by Adam Nussdorf who got his start on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It also features Tim Kring of Heroes, and David Eick from Battlestar Galactica, as executive producers on the project.
MORE BEYOND: ComicBook.com Review | Deeper Look at ‘The Man in the Yellow Jacket’ | Sneak peek at Holden’s Power
