Into The Badlands is back on AMC – after a long hiatus – and the show is hoping to wow again with its second go-round. The first season, which aired in the late months of 2015, grabbed the attention of audiences with its unique story and brutal fight choreography.

Heading into the second season, so much has changed. Ryder and Jade are in control of Quinn’s territory, MK is being trained to use his powers, Sunny is nowhere to be found, and The Widow has been hiding for the last six months.

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To help break down some of the big changes – specifically those occurring to Jade and Ryder – Sarah Bolger took some time to chat with ComicBook. First, she gave fans a little insight as to what has been going on with Jade, ever since she took over as Baroness.

SB: I think for the first time ever, we see Jade sort of at her best. She’s right at the height of her reign, her life, like at the start of the season. It’s sort of her version of perfection. She’s running things, she’s in a position of power. She thinks she’s one of the people who has risen to the top. It’s like, this is her dream. She’s living. I think this is like the juxtaposition of the rest of the show, the Jade-Ryder, their sort of quasi-Fort at that point even though it’s not the same fort we knew. It’s their own new world, for want of a better term.

Things are running smoothly. There’s this lie concocted. I mean, they’re not really sure if it’s a total lie, but in the sense that they’re making this sort of ghost tale of Ryder’s courage. And now that he’s king it’s just this whole fantasy. But they’re living the dream.

CB: Does Jade have those real feelings for Ryder? Or is she just going to attach herself to whatever gets her in power?

Sarah Bolger: Well, here’s the thing. I think there’s a real partnership between Jade and Ryder. And a bond from a very early age. That is a unique thing in the Badlands. It’s like how we toy with the idea of what a villain is or what a hero is. We also toy with the idea of sort of what love is. And in this show it’s sort of based on what you know and what position you hold. And I think Jade, she’s so ambitious, and I think they sort of always surpassed Ryder’s ambitions. She’s always been built to win, and I think in this situation Ryder needs her to be able to rule, and she needs Ryder to have the position she now possesses. It’s sort of a perfect, symbiotic relationship they have going. I think Jade’s very much in the driver’s seat, but it always benefits her to be sort of a step back from the throne.

So you don’t think she has any intention in the future of becoming another version of the Widow and then taking things for herself?

I think Jade’s ambitions are boundless, but I think she’s smart about it. And I think what’s happening now is sort of like the perfect position of power that she holds. To your question of love, I do think there is a love for Ryder. But I don’t think it’s what would be deemed “normal” today.

Is Jade feeling any remorse here for what went down with Lydia and with Quinn in season one?

Absolutely not. I think what’s great about Jade is that she’s so pragmatic. She has a Badlands vision of royalty and the hierarchy you have to climb, and she will do whatever it takes and climb over however many bodies it takes to get to that position. She has no remorse. There’s no past, and I think that’s key in this pilot. I think one of the kinks in the Ryder-Jade relationship is that Ryder has an issue with this. With the thing they’ve concocted. The dream, essentially. And I think Jade has this Lady Macbeth mentality of “A little water clears us of this deed.” Put it in the past, you have to look forward. It’s only forward from now on. That’s the way she lives her life. It’s nothing in the past bothers her, she has no remorse and no guilt.

She’s definitely opportunistic in that regard.

She’s very fun to play.

Going into this season, what can fans expect? One, from Jade, but also just from the show as a whole?

show is great cause it expands so much this year. It expands past the fort and the sanctuary, and we see this whole other realm. And with that, with the opening of the literal world, we sort of have an opening of the characters. Ten episodes gives us so much more time to dive into each character’s persona and the inner dwellings of that nasty part of the [inaudible 00:06:39]. Just sort of them and their true thoughts and true ambitions and true nature. I think we’ve really got to expand it on all levels this year in a very exciting, explosive way.

Be sure to check out the season two premiere of Into The Badlands on Sunday, March 19, at 10pm ET. The show will air immediately after The Walking Dead.

If you love the show as much as we do, be sure to give it a rating below, and see how it stacks up against other popular series’!

Season Two of Into the Badlands finds Sunny and M.K. separated and scattered to the wind, each imprisoned in unlikely places. While M.K. struggles to control his powers, Sunny is determined to fight his way back into the Badlands to find his family or die trying. On their journey, Clipper and Colt are assisted by new allies whose motivations may be anything but pure. Meanwhile, the Widow continues to consolidate power against the other Barons, while a dark and mysterious threat prepares to exact revenge on them all. Alliances are struck, friendships betrayed and, by season’s end, Sunny and M.K.’s lives will be forever altered.

From AMC Studios, Into the Badlands was created by showrunners/executive producers/writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and executive produced by Oscar®-nominated producers Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg, director David Dobkin, fight director Stephen Fung and Daniel Wu.

Into the Badlands stars Wu (Tai Chi Zero) as Sunny; Aramis Knight (The Dark Knight Rises) as M.K.; Oliver Stark (Luther) as Ryder; Emily Beecham (28 Weeks Later) as The Widow; Orla Brady (Dr. Who, Fringe) as Lydia; Sarah Bolger (Once Upon a Time, The Tudors) as Jade; Ally Ioannides (Parenthood) as Tilda; and Madeleine Mantock (Edge of Tomorrow) as Veil.

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