Witch Wars
The magic hits the fan in the Salem Witch drama
After a first season THAT saw witch Mary Sibley reunited with her long- lost child, Salem returns for 13 new episodes in its second year. “All of the things that make Salem, Salem are there,” co- creator and executive producer Brannon Braga tells SFX. “But we’re also expanding the world. We’re going to see other places. We’re going to see other characters, including Lucy Lawless playing Countess Marburg, who is an ancient Germanic witch. She’s sensed that Mary has completed the Grand Rite and she’s coming to Salem to get her. She’s poses a terrible threat to Mary.”
Also joining the cast is Stuart Townsend. “He plays a character named Samuel Wainwright,” comments Braga, “and he’s drawn to Salem by the terrible plague that has been unleashed by the Grand Rite, but he doesn’t know it’s a witch pox. He thinks it’s a regular pox, and he’s come to help. He takes a personal interest in Mary Sibley, and we learn through Mary that this guy is not everything he seems to be, and has some very dark, strange obsessions.
British actor Joe Doyle also joins the cast as Countess Marburg’s son. “They have a strange, incestuous relationship. They call each other mother and son and we think they’re mother and son, but we can’t be sure,” Braga says. “He’s gonna turn out to be a very nasty character himself. There are maternal themes running through this year, about mothers and sons.
“There was smallpox throughout Salem at this time,” adds Braga. “And that’s what gave us the idea. It’s like, ‘ Okay, this happened in history, but our spin is the witches are controlling it.’ There are strange supernatural acts of magic that we took right from the transcripts of the witch trials. Stranger stuff than you can even imagine.”
Salem season two starts 5 April on WGN America.