Snakkle Dishes with Colin Cunningham on Falling Skies Season 2
Falling Skies series star Colin Cunningham teases the second season of the hit sci-fi drama for Snakkle: “The first season of Falling Skies, Tom was a teacher and Anne was a pediatrician, and they were sort of still themselves, just thrust into this situation. Now Anne is a seasoned medic on the battlefield and Tom is far more of a warrior, and the kids are soldiers. They’re not necessarily what they used to be. The first season, they got honed and hardened, and the second season is way darker. There’s more loss; there’s more blood; there’s more everything.” By Danielle TurchianoThe one thing Cunningham said there is less of this time around, though, is hope. And that means every tension is more tragic and more lives will be lost.
“We saw a bunch of light in Pope in the first season, but I don’t think we’re going to play too much with that this season. He’s thinking clearly; he’s not encumbered by emotion or all of these feelings or allegiances or things like that. It’s logic; it’s survival; it’s incredibly rational. He’s very simple that way and very direct. We’re going to see more of that, and sometimes that will cause problems, as well. This season we’re going to entertain the darker side of Pope and a little bit more of his selfish side and his edgy side. I think the whole show is a little bit edgier this year,” Cunningham continued.
When the second season of Falling Skies starts, Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) has been gone for a few months, presumed dead by most in the 2nd Mass. This allows others within the new militia to step up and accept new ranks while fighting an even more advanced threat than the Skitters and Mechs of season 1.
“We pick up three months later, and things have kind of settled into a new situation,” Cunningham explained. “You’ve got Hal, who’s certainly stepped up more and more with responsibilities, and then the Ben character, he’s grown up and fast!… The Skitters and the Mechs and the aliens [are] even more violent; they’re even more organized. They’re coming, and you see in the second episode, the battles are more and more extreme. They were able to jam our frequency, so the frequency you saw us use in season 1 no longer works. They’re evolving as well.”
Naturally, most of the conflict within season 2 of Falling Skies will be between the 2nd Mass and the aliens that have “come down and taken over.” However, a few new characters will come into play who may stir up the dynamics within the 2nd Mass as well.
“There are definitely some wonderful story turns that were really unexpected for us when we started reading the scripts,” Cunningham shared. “There are a lot of wonderful new characters brought in to explore some new story lines. You’ll notice Lourdes has a love interest in the second season, and it’s so nice to see her character come more to life than in the first season.”
Some of the new characters may be there to simply take the on-screen place of characters we loved and will sadly lose early in the second season. Cunningham didn’t want to spoil too much, but one early, shocking death is just going to set the tone for the other changes to come this year.
“War is hell, and fortunately or unfortunately, Falling Skies as a show is bigger than any one character,” he said. “In the real-world war situation, people do die often, and you’ll find Falling Skies is no different.”
Falling Skies returns to TNT on June 17, 2012.