WAR OF THE WORLDS S2
THE ALIEN APOCALYPSE INTENSIFIES IN WAR OF THE WORLDS S2…
Assessing the alien threat with Gabriel Byrne and co.
Amodern, pan-European adap of H.G. Wells’ alien-invasion classic, War Of The Worlds launches into its second season with fresh threats, new characters and answers to cliffhanging questions. Creator Howard Overman and his cast discuss making a show about a global crisis in the midst of a real-life one.
How did you make an entire season in three months during a pandemic?
GABRIEL BYRNE (BILL): It’s the nature of creating television these days; the pace is relentless. It’s not an easy show to shoot. In Season 1, we were contending with the cold and rain; in Season 2, it was the heat in the studio for 12, 13 hours a day; and we were also jumping around between episodes, trying to keep in mind the arc of the story and characters. But it’s a great project to work on. I’m the oldest in the cast and love being surrounded by the energy of young people running up and down stairs with guns!
Where do we find your characters in Season 2?
PEARL CHANDA (ZOE): You meet Zoe at the start of the season. She’s the chief of the resistance that has been formed, and her main aim is to win the war against the aliens, who are forever getting stronger. She’ll
stop at nothing, even if it hurts those around her and puts people in danger. She’s a dark horse. Her methods are dubious, but I always enjoy playing morally ambiguous characters [laughs], and finding moments of vulnerability, because people have different sides.
BAYO GBADAMOSI (KARIEM):
My character’s been left with a sense of guilt around what happened at the end of Season 1, with its massive cliffhanger. He’s on this journey of trying to be a protector, trying to keep this band of humans together. There is a lot of care and curiosity in Kariem, and we explore that in this season. It’s my first time playing a character from one season to another, and
I feel an ownership and rootedness in who he is. Kariem is South Sudanese and my dialect coach is amazing, really helping me get into his accent and understand the culture of the people.
Howard, you seem to have an ongoing affinity with sci-fi… HOWARD OVERMAN: I find it offers possibilities to tell interesting stories that look outside our own worlds while also looking at us. Arrival did that very well – you’ve got aliens on Earth, but it’s really about having a kid, and [about] the nature of love. I’m not into little green men with zapping lasers! Why does Wells’ novel still resonate?
GB: It’s such a prescient, beautifully thought-out and constructed story. And it deals with an existential threat to humanity, which is a timeless theme, whether you’re talking about war, or the pandemic, or the environmental crisis, which in my opinion is a greater crisis than even the pandemic. The big question is if we can get a vaccine to deal with the environment. H.G. Wells was a genius of a writer, and understood how fragile we all are; he looked at technology, the future, patterns in history, and the profound idea that humankind is susceptible to extinction. Ashanti Omkar
WAR OF THE WORLDS S2 IS RELEASED ON DISNEY+ ON 16 JULY.