Altered Carbon’s Chris Conner on Poe’s Big Return, Working With New Cast

Altered Carbon is not a show where job security is any sort of guarantee for its cast members. Like the characters within its world, many of the Netflix show’s stars were re-sleeved with someone else playing the characters introduced in the show’s debut run. One of the few cast members who did get to return was Chris Conner, the man responsible for bringing the artificially intelligent Poe to life, ultimately having one of the more emotional stories in the new episodes. For Conner, returning to the show was something brand new as Anthony Mackie took the lead as Takeshi Kovacs and many of his original co-stars were no more.

t’s a different world,” Conner told Comicbook.com. “I mean we are creating a different season of television that has never been seen before compared to season one. I mean you really can’t compare. They’re apples and oranges. There’s not any way to translate it except for the vast story that we tell. Takeshi Kovacs is obviously carrying on and I get to be part of that, like the TARDIS in Doctor Who. It’s a joy to get to play with new people and especially Dina [Shihabi] who I get to know in an intimate way in season two which is awesome.”

Check out the full interview in the video below!

The new season calls on a deeper story for the character who was thought dead at the end of Altered Carbon‘s first season. Still on a quest to discover what it means to be human, Poe becomes close with Shihabi’s Dig, a fellow computer character. “I think there’s an ability to actually simplify,” Shihabi said. “I mean these AI’s have histories, they have things that they’ve been through that have shaped who they are and the way they see the world which is amazing. And in that way they’re very like humans but they don’t live in the human world so they’re not dealing with the same human problems. And so there’s an ability to sort of exist a little bit outside of that and have an innocence that I loved. And originally I thought maybe it would be like Ex Machina. But I’d seen the show so I knew that it was gonna feel more human.”

Of course, at the center of Poe’s existence, is his service to Takeshi Kovacs. That relationship is thoroughly tested in Season 2 but Conner had a great report with both Joel Kinnaman in Season 1’s Kovacs role and Mackie’s portrayal of the character in Season 2.

“Speaking of apples and oranges, there is such a joy getting to play with two strong, amazing movie stars that bring such different elements to the work,” Conner said. “Anthony this year brings a charisma and a kindness, almost a love that you can viscerally feel on the screen. And that was just for me the best part of it. Just his open heart every day, working was a joy.”

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Altered Carbon Season 2 is available on Netflix on Thurday.