‘The Wilds’ Guys Address Subverting Expectations With Their Season 2 Debut: ‘It Flips Your Perspective’
usmagazine.comSettling in. With season 2 of The Wilds introducing a new island filled with all boys, the pressure was on to tell a unique story of survival — and the newcomers were up for the challenge.During the new episodes of the Prime Video series, which dropped on Friday, May 6, stars Charles Alexander and Alex Fitzalan got to explore many layers to their respective characters that offered some important commentary on subverting labels.“That’s something that really drew me to the show in the first place was just seeing how the first season presented these archetypal characters, and then you can’t help but make a judgment of them,” Alexander, who plays Kirin, exclusively told Us Weekly ahead of the second season. “Then as the story progresses, it flips your perspective and you’re left feeling like, ‘Oh, don’t judge a book by its cover.'”The Mother Dearest actor noted that he was pleasantly surprised by the journey Kirin ended up taking. “He is the emblem, or at least he presents as the emblem, of toxic masculinity and the lacrosse team is just so on the nose,” he said. “But very early on I had some great meetings with [creator and executive producer] Sarah Streicher and understood that there’s a deep wound there and that drives him.
He’s very vulnerable beneath this exterior.”Fitzalan, 26, for his part, also faced an onscreen transformation as Seth struggled between his need to be liked and his secret identity as the operative.
Those internal issues ended with a chilling decision when Seth sexually assaulted Josh (Nicholas Coombe) at the end of episode 4.“Learning about what happens was quite an intense experience and I was petrified to, to film this [or] to film anything to do with assault in this way.
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