The New Queen Of Camelot: Angel Coulby Talks Merlin Season 5

All good things come to an end, and sadly, this is the last of our Merlin Comic-Con interviews for 2012… unless you count a video post that should be posted here shortly.

We saved one of the best for last, though, as we spoke with Angel Coulby (Guinevere), who made her Comic-Con debut this year in San Diego. You can read our past Merlin interviews here; but now… let’s hear what the new Queen had to say at the roundtable discussion!

“I think she’s become a lot more assertive now,” Angel says to us about the changes that have come through for Gwen since becoming Queen. “She’s still humble – you know, obviously from humble beginnings – but she’s realized that she does make a good Queen. If you look back to Season One, she would never have believed in a million years that she’d ever become Queen, even though I think she always had the making to be a good Queen and is living up to that now. I think now she’s accepted the fact that she’s good at her job, basically, and she’s very happy to be in that position at Arthur’s side. She’s got a real sense of duty,” she says.

Since there is a three year gap, storyline-wise, between Seasons 4 and 5, did Coulby come up with a backstory for that missing time? “Sort of. It all kind of comes out through the scripts. Camelot has been quite peaceful, perhaps, up until the beginning of Series 5, and I think that she’s been sort of finding her feet with being Queen, but has also slipped into the role pretty well. Her and Arthur’s relationship has, I think, in that time really solidified and become a really good partnership, after some difficult stuff happened in Series 4. He’s forgiven her, they’ve come through, and they really trust each other now, so that’s nice,” she says.

“They really do confide in each other. He always sort of says ‘I trust you more than anyone.’ It’s a really nice relationship that they’ve developed. They’re very close, and it’s very loving and comfortable. I think he really does trust her and respect her,” she continues.

Regarding Gwen’s relationship with Merlin, she does hint that you may see some change at some point. “The relationship maybe gets tested a little bit during the series. But, initially, I think she respects him… she reveres him, even. She thinks he’s amazing and brave. I think she trusts him, and they’ve still got a very close relationship,” she teases. Series 5 will also see her interacting with Katie McGrath’s Morgana again. “There is a bit more development in the Gwen-Morgana storyline this time around, which is really nice, because I haven’t had too much to do with Katie in the last three years. So, yeah, suddenly you see a bit more Gwen-Morgana, which is a great storyline, I have to say. It’s amazing,” she says. “The Gwen and Morgana storyline is pretty juicy. Something to look out for.”

Did she expect to be playing Queen Guinevere when she signed up for the role? “I suppose I never really try to expect too much of anything, so it’s a nice surprise when it happens. I always hoped. I always thought this would be the most important part to me to get to be the Queen, going through that part of the story. I suppose after Season 2, I realized that we were in something quite massive, and it was so popular… I always though that it would do well, when I first read the scripts. I thought ‘these are great scripts,’ and when I met the cast, it was a really good cast, and what could go wrong? But I didn’t think it would be such a worldwide success. I guess that is partly due to the characters and the way it’s been cast, and I think people really love watching us all grow together, and watching the chemistry and all the little quirks that they expect. People are very loyal to the show, which is great,” she says.

Our thanks to Team Merlin for speaking with us at Comic-Con. Come talk Merlin on the KSiteTV Forum!