The first season finale of Beyond just aired on the East Coast, and a few weeks ago, we spoke with the show’s three lead actors — Burkely Duffield (Holden), Jonathan Whitesell (Luke), and Dilan Gwyn (Willa) — about the events that occurred with a little dash of what their hopes are for Season 2 of the Freeform television series.
Obviously, spoilers for the finale, “Into The Light,” are being discussed within. All of Beyond is available to watch via the Freeform app, so if you haven’t seen the first season yet, binge it!
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: There was a period of several minutes in the finale that were in a very different setting and place, with the ice bridge and that sort of thing. Can you talk about how that was even shot?
BURKELY DUFFIELD: That was green screen. We had an ice bridge…. there was an actual “ice bridge” that we had.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: It was made of foam…
DILAN GWYN: Some parts were just, like, the cliff, and some parts were like the bridge.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: It was depending on the shots. Another cool thing that they did that we got to see visually was all the flares when they were doing the lights and stuff. And a lot of fans! A lot of lights skimming over the lenses and giving it that otherworldly sort of “gates of heaven” kind of look, which combined practical effects with visual effects, special effects, and a whole bunch of aspects together.
Is it difficult to shoot a sequence like that, to act with no background at all?
BURKELY DUFFIELD: It’s intense. It has challenges.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: You definitely did a lot. I did one day.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: It’s kind of fun. You get to use your imagination, and it’s kind of cool to be able to create what you’re going to be seeing in your mind before it’s put on screen. You get to see sketches, and they prepare you for what you’re doing, but it’s kind of like the root of your acting, is being able to use all your imagination, and then being able to put it out on camera.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: It’s cool to see when it translates, and you have the [very talented] VFX team, and they just added to the atmosphere of everything in the realm. I feel like there was a lot more than I expected.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: Very talented people.
Can you talk about the revelation that Frost is Willa’s father?
DILAN GWYN: I thought that was just really well written. I think we all got really excited about it when we read that script, because I didn’t know that in the beginning. Obviously, Willa didn’t know it until [later]. It was cool. Everything was intertwined, with Arthur and Frost, and Willa’s always had this longing for a mother. My father, he left. But my mother, she had her mother in a pedestal, but then everything was kind of connected. I think it was really cool.
Jonathan, what was it like for you to have Luke finally in on what was going on with his brother?
JONATHAN WHITESELL: It was interesting, because I believe it was Episode 7 that we were meeting in the diner with Jeff, and it was this kind of moment of being like “man, I’m getting thrown into this. Am I supposed to be here? What’s everyone doing?” All of a sudden, Jeff’s character’s pulling out a gun, and Willa’s character has knives, and I’m like “whoa, I’m super not prepared for this!” But I felt like, as myself, as I was reading these scripts, it was very much this kind of “whoa! Okay, that’s happening now.” And I liked the reveal, when Holden’s getting thrown into Frost’s guest bedroom, and I’m seeing him for the first time, and it’s this kind of like “okay, we have so much stuff to talk about. Where do we start?” That mentality that he has in that moment, that shock, that urgency, and that total break that he’s having right there of, like “I’m trying to do something, and I’m trying to help you, and I’m trying to be here”… and Holden really not having any of it, because he is trying to protect all of us. That switch was one of my favorite moments in the show. And I feel like it’s all stemmed from him wanting to protect the family.
By the finale, it seems Holden and Willa finally acknowledge that they have present-day feelings for each other. Can you talk about that, and what it might mean for Season 2?
BURKELY DUFFIELD: There’s a lot that goes on that defines their relationship in different ways, but exactly. I think that enough has settled down that they’re able to realize what true feelings that they have are.
DILAN GWYN: Very deep.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: Exactly. And I think Holden’s finally getting his footing. A lot of stuff is thrown at him very quickly, and I think finally by the end of [Episode] 10 you see him come into his own, and he starts to make decisions for himself. He finally at the end goes “this is how I feel. This is what I want.” And that’s a big point of him, because he’s finally choosing a path. He kisses Willa, and then says “this is the path that I want to go down.”
DILAN GWYN: And maybe we could start having a normal kind of life together.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: Exactly. A normal life.
DILAN GWYN: Not everything’s life and death.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: We’ve figured it out. We can start anew and can start a relationship.
Can you talk about that apocalyptic looking realm at the end of the season and what your reaction was when you saw the finished product?
BURKELY DUFFIELD: “Whoa!” I think was my initial reaction.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: Even in the script itself when it came out, I was just super excited, and it was an immediate visual, seeing you and Dylan side-by-side in this crumbling world.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: Dylan, Young Holden. There’s a lot of crossing names, but yes.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: I was super excited and I’m glad how it turned out.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: He doesn’t get much of a nice break. There’s no vacation, he doesn’t get a weekend… he falls asleep and the Realm is ruined. It’s something that clearly is going to have to be tended to. It’s pretty big.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: And the thing that got me is that he says “this is the first world.”
BURKELY DUFFIELD: It’s like “yours will be next” and it’s just like “oh my gosh! This is some sort of domino effect that is going to be affecting how many worlds.”
What are you hoping to hoping to see from Beyond Season 2?
DILAN GWYN: From Willa’s point of view, like I said before, it would be nice for her to be able to be normal. I mean, the whole first season is about Holden trying to be normal, but Willa’s never had a normal life either. So it would be nice for her to have normalcy as well, being able to interact with Holden on a more romantic level which she waited for the whole season, but it never really came until the end. That would be nice, I think.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: I think that the establishing shots in the montage prior to the apocalypse that was happening with Holden and his younger self really establish where things are going to be going for Season 2. You’ve got Yellow Jacket and Charlie connecting, and the family is having this moment of “are we good? Is this going to be something normal? Is Tom going to be sticking around? Is Diane going to be this force in the family that’s going to be the glue?” There’s all these little tidbits. You’ve got Tess and Frost, obviously, now that he’s lost in wherever his body and mind is…
DILAN GWYN: And there’s a higher power above Frost.
BURKELY DUFFIELD: It’s that progression. We “save the day,” but you realize “not really.” Things are still rolling, and things are still going. There’s a lot more you can expect.
JONATHAN WHITESELL: Frost is just the beginning.
You can read more of KSiteTV’s Beyond coverage from Season 1 here.
