‘Midnight, Texas’ Cast Reveal Sexy, Dark Season 2 Secrets

In the middle of New Mexico is a small, haunted town called Midnight, Texas. As the sun sets on mountains in the distance, providing a second-to-none orange glow for eyes to feast on, trouble is brewing in the new hotel on this NBC set. A villainous group has moved into the town and the locals have been infiltrated, forced to use their evolved skills and enhanced sense of comradery after building it through a prior season to fend off some new demons.

While elements of the first season of Midnight, Texas will be present and expanded on in the coming episodes, the show will largely focus on a pivot lead by new showrunners Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder. “We still wanted to service the things that were set up at the end of the season like the trickling of demon residue from Manfred’s ear and the hotel being opened,” Snyder told ComicBook.com on the show’s set. “It really allowed us to brainstorm how do we bring in new people to Midnight, new big bads, gave us a little more room.”

A new Friday night time slot certainly won’t hurt Midnight, Texas‘ ability to push boundaries as they pertain to mature elements. “We really pushed the envelope just in regards to relationships and sex appeal and gore and scares, it’s a mixed bag but it’s pretty risque,” Charmelo said. It should come as no surprise that the two new showrunners previous wrote for Supernatural, and they’re angling their current work towards the vein of True Blood. “I think Friday nights is great for genre programming, honestly,” Charmelo said. “I think it’s a perfect fit for us, so we’re excited.”

“This year is heavy mythology,” Snyder said. “There’s mythology unfolds in every single episode.”

While expanding the depth of Midnight‘s mythology is a big driver for the narrative, it can’t top the characters’ relationships for that main seat. “Last season I think the show was trying to find its legs and there were monster of the week elements,” Charmelo said. “We still have that peripherally but the relationships take front and center this season.”

Chief among those relationships will be Manfred’s, as Midnight‘s lead actor Francois Arnoud points out. “We find Manfred in the beginning of Season Two, he’s still haunted by whatever he went through in the finale, the possession by six different demons,” Arnoud said. “And you see this black goo oozing out of his ears and he’s having these nightmares that he’s hurting the ones he loves. Most notably Creek and the other Midnighters, and he finds comfort in the fact that they are dreams until something in his environment indicates otherwise, that he’s actually getting out of bed at night and preparing something horrible. So, he again will have to overcome his own demons or whatever’s growing inside of him. And obviously that effects his relationship.”

While it’s trouble in paradise for Manfred and his lady, it won’t be enough to ruin things forever. “At one point, I think she’s had enough and she decides to just take off and pursue other dreams,” Arnoud said. “But she comes back. She comes back periodically. She asks Manfred to go with her and at one point that’s the plan until obviously something holds them back.”

Meanwhile, Peter Mensah’s Lemuel Bridger is trying to keep things together with Arielle Kebbel’s Olivia Charity after their romance was strained leading up to their marriage in the first season. “The unfortunate thing is you can be miles away, and still know what the other person’s going through,” Mensah said, referencing his character’s vampire abilities. “So, there’s a certain amount of irritation that comes with not having any real privacy. So, yes, it affects our relationship, and brings it to some interesting places. I can’t tell you what. You’ll just have to watch it!”

From where Kebbell is sitting, the relationship might hit some bumps as a result of her desire to remain independent. “Marriage ain’t a walk in the park,” Kebbell laughed. “We go straight into the psychic connection, and what is this very cool new thing for Olivia, that her man knows everything she needs before she even does. Takes a very quick dark turn because all of a sudden it’s like, ‘wow,’ he’s encroaching on her space wherever she goes. And there’s just no getting away from it. She could be in the middle of a fight and he’s coming to her rescue. And that would, I think, bother any woman. But specifically Olivia, because of how independent she is and she’s only trusted herself to do things her way, her entire life.”

Moving forward, Midnight, Texas will follow its Supernatural predecessor in tone and shape. “What we learned from Supernatural was really how to weave together scares and humor and we really tried to bring that to the show this season,” Charmelo said. “It’s definitely ironic, but it’s really scary and it’s funny and it’s sexy.”

Midnight, Texas premieres its second season on Friday, October 26 at 9pm ET on NBC.