Based on Sally Green’s Half Bad trilogy, the Netflix show follows Nathan (Jay Lycurgo) who is stuck between two warring clans as the son of the world’s most dangerous witch and who is constantly being monitored for signs he will follow in his father’s footsteps.
Followed by death at almost every turn, Nathan tries to find himself and come to terms with his place in the world through a journey with fellow magic users Annalise (Nadia Parkes) and Gabriel (Emilien Vekemans), all while his half-sister Jessica (Isobel Jesper Jones) and Annalise’s father Soul (Paul Ready) target him.
‘The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself’ Cast Talk ‘Beautifully Dark’ Show
With so many young adult fantasy shows out there, on Netflix or otherwise, it was always going to be a challenge for The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself to stand out, but it does so by being unafraid of violence and by showing the grim consequences of using magic.
On both sides of the war between the Fairborns and the Blood Witches there is a penchant for violence, and it raises the question, ‘When you have this much power how far are you willing to take it?" For Nathan, Annalise and Gabriel, this is certainly a question they’re hoping to find an answer to.
Reflecting on the show’s nature, Parker called it “so brilliantly, beautifully dark” and added: “I know that this has kind of a YA audience, but I think it will appeal to adults too, and I think it will have a wider audience that are drawn into it because there is lots of darkness, but there’s also so much humor and romance and like beauty in it as well.”
Lycurgo concurred, saying: “I think that’s what’s nice, I just don’t think we hide away from the human nature of it.
“I think too many fantasy shows—and respect to them—but they show the magic and then there’s no consequence, and I think what is nice about it with this is like, no, if you’re going to lose a bit of your body, if someone’s going to chop that off that’s gone for the rest of the show, you know?
“If you’ve seen someone die in front of you, that’s going to change that character’s whole chemistry. So that’s the thing, I think everything that the character is affected by carries on with [them on] the journey, and it’s raw, very raw.”
Jesper Jones added: “I think it’s like grappling with really important ideas of like identity. I think a lot of the characters are trying to figure out what’s right or wrong, and I think Joe Barton’s script is so complicated and the characters are so complicated.
“And I think a YA audience want that and need that. I don’t think they’re shying away from that in the script, I think that’s a good thing.”
Creating Their Characters’ Bonds
The show has a number of interesting relationships, both friendly and romantic in nature, particularly between Nathan, Annalise and Gabriel.
Lycurgo reflected on Nathan’s journey in the season, and he said: “He is just a really lonely and isolated, quiet person, because he’s always been in fight-and-flight [mode] and he doesn’t trust anyone.
“He doesn’t have a lot of people that he can trust, and I think what’s really nice is that he meets people along the way, that he finds this confidence, and I think it’s really beautiful. I think it’s a really beautiful teenage story, to be honest, because I think a lot of times teenagers are scared to talk and have a voice and I know I did.
“As cheeky as I was, there was definitely times where I questioned my intelligence and questioned where I stood around my peers. So, as he goes through the story, I think it’s just really nice that he blossoms and he met some really beautiful people.”
Vekemans felt similarly about his character, Gabriel, who masks his vulnerabilities with his sassy wit and pushes away anyone who gets too close, behavior which stems from his traumatic childhood.
“I think he has this big, big fear of being abandoned because he was abandoned by his parents when he was a child,” the actor said. “And I think all of this fear, he builds his personality on this fear. So all this sarcastic, sassy way—it’s just to put distance, [it’s a] defense mechanism against feelings, and emotions and love.
“I think that’s […] the weakness of Gabriel, the thing that he is going to also work on or discover about himself during the whole season.”
Reflecting on Nathan and Gabriel’s bond and its romantic potential, specifically, Lycurgo added: “I think what’s really beautiful about this is what we were just saying, Nathan feels very lonely and isolated and also doesn’t have his parents and also [Gabriel is] abandoned, they’re both orphans in some way. I think that’s like one of the main things they have in common.”
Vekemans agreed, saying the way Nathan acted with Annalise and with Gabriel was different, adding: “You could see there were so many more walls up with Nathan talking to Annalise because she didn’t understand it but then there was this moment where I didn’t even know this would help us. But it really did when Gabriel and Nathan were speaking and it was so easy, and we have so much and in common. It was really nice.”
Embracing Their Dark Side
Each of the characters has their own unique magical power, which they inherit on their 17th birthday following a ritual that sees them drink the blood of one of their parents, with Fairborn witch Annalise having the most surprising one: destruction.
Annalise’s power is dark and violent as she is able to completely destroy a person by unraveling them from the inside out, while Gabriel uses alchemy and Jessica can shape-shift. Nathan’s full powers have yet to be unleashed, though his father Marcus (David Gyasi) is able to turn into animals.
Parkes called Annalise’s journey to accept her violent powers “fascinating and amazing,” adding: “She kind of starts off being told what is good and what is bad in this world, and then she kind of goes on her own journey to discover what that actually is; and she finds out lots about her upbringing and her childhood, and people around her that [are] kind of built on lies.
“I think when she gets…her power, she kind of doesn’t know how to deal with it, or what to make of it, and I think it’s a really beautiful kind of coming-of-age story because I think when we were growing up we all kind of had moments of like, ‘I’ve got this emotion, I don’t know what to do with it.’”
Speaking about Jessica’s shape-shifting abilities and how she isn’t afraid to use it to manipulate those around her, Jesper Jones added: “One of the things I absolutely love about her is she’s so kind of unapologetic, I think she’s just someone that works on instinct and she goes for it and she knows what she wants.
“She’s actually talking about, those ideas of what’s right and what’s wrong, and I think she has very strong beliefs and that’s what kind of fuels that, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes.’
“Her sense of humor, I think, in particular, is something I love. There’s something really fun about playing someone who really messes with people. But I also think there’s quite a lot of darkness and a lot of loneliness and her, which at times could be more tricky to kind of manage.”
The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself is out on Netflix now.
