Warning: Major spoilers ahead for The Institute season 2 episode 1.
The Institute season 2 isn't holding back on the drama, as episode 1 has already given us a shock death.
The new instalment of the Stephen King adaptation delves into the lives of Tim (Ben Barnes), Wendy (Hannah Galway), Luke (Joe Freeman), Kalisha (Simone Miller) and Nicky (Fionn Laird) after the youngsters' escape at the end of the last season.
But, as we've come to expect, danger is around every corner - and, after Luke has a premonition about a disaster befalling a mother and baby on the street, he can't help but step in. The issue is that everyone has filmed him doing so. Soon enough, the gang are hunted down and, while Wendy is able to warn the others, she's unable to save herself.
Speaking exclusively to Radio Times about that shocking twist and how it's going to impact Tim and the kids, Barnes said: "One of the interesting things in the first season is that there is a sort tragic backstory to Tim, but you never see it.
"And I think he was sort of balancing how invested he is in this story. He's balancing trying to get away from everything and start fresh and feel peaceful and also, scratch the itch of this thing in this town that is clearly wrong.
"In the second season, the stakes are very high for him. He's this pseudo-parental figure to these kids, and they are on the lam and trying to stay hidden, and then, they have this tragedy in the first episode which kind of stokes the fire and fuels the story and projects Tim through the arc of the second season."
Barnes added: "I was told about it before we started shooting it, as this will be the fuse that kind of rockets him through all the things that he does and the choices that he has to make about protecting these kids and striking back at the man."
Just how that all plays out, only time will tell.
Previously, the creators of The Institute opened up about some of the big changes to King's novel in the series.
"The book introduces the character of Tim for the first 70 pages, and then he disappears for the next several hundred pages until [Tim and the young adults in the Institute] meet," creator Benjamin Cavell explained.
"And there was a real challenge. I mean, one of the big changes we made is that in the book, the town where he is night-knocking and sort of settling in and hiding out from his past is very removed from the Institute.
"I mean, it's hundreds and hundreds of miles away in a different state. It's in South Carolina, and the Institute is in Maine. It felt to us as though we're missing an opportunity to have him nearby."
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So, in an effort to bring Tim closer to the action, both his storyline and that of the young adults in the Institute take place in the same area, and come together far quicker than in King’s book.
But how did the author himself feel about the switch?
"At first he wasn't certain about the change, when we first pitched it to him, just because it's such a departure," Cavell admitted.
"But we were able, Jack [Bender, director] and I, together we were able to sort of essentially show him why it's not the departure that it feels like, and it's actually just in some way amplifying what's already there in the book."
The Institute season 2 begins streaming on MGM+ on Prime Video on 8 November.
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