Discovering ‘Witches’: Season 2 comes to AMC
One of Sundance Now’s most successful series to date, the highly anticipated “A Discovery of Witches” is back with more drama and powerful secrets. The fantasy-filled supernatural thriller has captured audiences with its magic and time travelthemed narratives, and Season 2 is arriving on AMC’s traditional cable channel on Sunday, June 27.
The season will premiere with the first two episodes airing back-toback on the network, so expect the same harrowing excitement, outstanding performances from returning cast and the thrill of multiple new guest stars and storylines.
In the 10-episode second season, which first debuted on Sundance Now and Shudder in January of this year, historian and witch Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer, “Hacksaw Ridge,” 2016) disappears into time with her vampire lover, Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode, “Watchmen,” 2009). After arriving in 1590s Elizabethan London, they continue their quest to protect the Book of Life and seek a powerful witch to teach Diana to control her magic.
During their time travels, Matthew confronts a face from his past, they meet with Queen Elizabeth (Barbara Marten, “The Turning,” 2020) and the forbidden love between witch and vampire reaches a new level of intimacy. The couple is also hiding in time from the Congregation, a group of daemons, witches and vampires that make up the main governing body for the supernatural creatures.
Diana and Matthew aren’t returning alone to continue the adventures. In the present day, Diana’s aunts, Sarah Bishop (Alex Kingston, “Doctor Who”) and Emily Mather (Valarie Pettiford, “Half & Half”), take shelter with witch hunter Ysabeau de Clermont (Lindsay Duncan, “Sherlock”) in the ancestral home, Sept-Tours.
In Oxford, daemon Sophie Norman’s (Aisling Loftus, “War & Peace”) pregnancy is also advancing. She and her husband, Nathaniel Wilson (Daniel Ezra, “All American”), are protected by vampires Marcus Whitmore (Edward Bluemel, “Killing Eve”) and Dr. Miriam Shephard (Aiysha Hart, “Line of Duty”).
Adding to the suspense, members of the Congregation, vampire Gerbert D’Aurillac (Trevor Eve, “Waking the Dead”) and witch Satu Järvinen (Malin Buska, “The Girl King,” 2015), who had previously kidnapped Diana, hunt down clues surrounding Diana and Matthew’s disappearance and try to uncover secrets kept by the allies. They are joined in this search by witch Peter Knox (Owen Teale, “Game of Thrones”) and vampire Domenico Michele (Gregg Chillin, “A Good Year,” 2006).
In the way of guest appearances, Sheila Hancock (“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” 2008) stars as the most powerful witch in England, Goody Alsop, whom Diana and Matthew travel through time to find, while James Purefoy (“Rome”) plays Matthew’s father, Philippe de Clermont. Steven Cree (“Outlander”) is Matthew’s nephew Gallowglass de Clermont, and Adelle Leonce (“Black Mirror”) stars as Phoebe Taylor, Marcus Whitmore’s beloved. (In an interview with MTV Movies, Leonce and Bluemel share they had met for the first time just before their first-date scene, adding to the show’s authenticity.)
“A Discovery of Witches” is based on the New York Times bestselling All Souls Trilogy books by Deborah Harkness, with the series name originating from the first book in the trilogy. Produced by Bad Wolf and Sky Productions, Warner Bros. purchased the film rights in 2011 during the early stages of development, and the series has since received multiple positive reviews from critics.
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an impressive 94% rating average across 33 critics for its combination of fantasy and lived-in authenticity, making for a “promising foray into the occult.” In 2018, the National Television Awards nominated “A Discovery of Witches” on the longlist for Best New Drama. By the following year, it had made it onto the shortlist in the same category.
For those new to the series, Season 1 begins with Diana denying her witch heritage until she unexpectedly acquires an ancient manuscript while studying alchemy and science at the University of Oxford: Ashmole 782, aka the Book of Life, an enchanted manuscript thought to hold the secrets surrounding the existence of supernatural beings.
With the threat of the creatures’ extinction on the line, Diana is thrown into a dangerous journey to unlock the book’s secrets before it falls into the wrong hands.
And although witches and vampires aren’t supposed to trust each other, she runs into geneticist and vampire Matthew, builds an alliance with him and they develop a relationship that violates age-old customs.
Dan McDermott, president of original programming of AMC Networks, calls this top-performing series “addictive” and is “thrilled to introduce the show to a wider audience” on AMC.
Following its Season 2 cable premiere on June 27, “A Discovery of Witches” will air new-to-AMC episodes weekly on Sundays.
Fans of streaming can binge the series on AMC’s streaming platforms, Sundance Now and Shudder, before gearing up for the third season, which executive producer Jane Tranter (“Succession,” 2018) revealed had completed shooting in February. Great news for fans of the show!
For those TV viewers who aren’t known to dabble in fantasy and supernatural thrillers, “A Discovery of Witches” still offers plenty of seatgripping thrills, authentic performances and addictive narratives.