Marc Guggenheim Talks Netflix's Trollhunters Season 2

Netflix’s animated TV series Trollhunters, created by Guillermo del Toro, chronicles the tale of two worlds and the rising of a hero. In Season 1, 15-year-old Jim Lake Jr. stumbled across a mystical amulet and became the first human Trollhunter. These champions are chosen to protect mankind and Heartstone Trollmarket, a secret civilization of trolls located under Jim’s hometown of Arcadia, from evil forces.

Jim struggled to juggle his newfound responsibilities and life as a high school student. However, along with his human friends Toby and Claire, as well as troll allies Blinky and AAARRRGGHH, Jim eventually embraced his destiny and defeated the menacing Bular -- but at a terrible price. The finale culminated with a guilt-ridden Jim traveling to the Darklands alone to square off against the biggest bad of them all, the troll Gunmar.

Season 2 of Trollhunters, now on Netflix, finds Jim experiencing new trials and adventures, as he unearths a diabolical plot that once again threatens both Heartstone Trollmarket and Arcadia. Arrow co-showrunner and Trollhunters executive producer Marc Guggenheim spoke with CBR about Jim’s voyage to the Darklands, Toby and Claire’s evolution from sidekicks to heroes, the coming of Gunmar and the theme of friendship.

CBR: When viewers first met Jim, he was an inexperienced human thrust into a fantasy world. He quickly learned that with great power comes great responsibility. At this point, how proficient is Jim at trollhunting and being a warrior and a defender?

Marc Guggenheim: I’d say he’s about halfway through his journey. He’s definitely improved and learned some new tricks since Season 1. At the same time, he still has a long way to go.

Season 1 ended with Jim crossing over to the Darklands by himself. Where do things pick up?

A few weeks have passed. We basically pick up with a re-visitation -- or a homage -- to the opening moments with Jim from the very first episode of Trollhunters. I don’t want to spoil exactly what we are doing, because there is a fun little twist to it, but you’ll see Jim back in Arcadia, waking up and making breakfast just like he did in the first episode. That’s a little surprising given the fact that last time we saw him, he was stuck in the Darklands. But, all will be revealed.

The Darklands is no vacation destination. Can you paint us a picture of this realm?

It is massively ambitious. It makes Trollmarket look small. It was very complicated. It really is a huge undertaking from a production standpoint to design this thing. It was an endeavor. The result is unbelievably satisfying. I think it had to be, because we’ve been hearing about the Darklands all through Season 1. You saw a little reveal at the end of Season 1, but we knew we had to go big to satisfy all the build-up that we had done.

The other thing introduced was Jim’s new suit of armor. Besides the black and red color change, how does this one compare to the original?

It’s a bit different. It’s a little more powerful, but it requires more willpower to wield correctly. Essentially, what Jim is doing is tapping into the dark side of things in order to manifest this armor and sword. That’s not a great situation to put a hero in, to dabble in the dark arts.

Arcadia rests on this supernatural hub. In Jim’s absence, what have Claire and Toby been up to?

They’ve had to do the work of three people between two people. And, they’ve also had to cover for the fact Jim is gone. It’s one thing if an adult disappears for a couple of weeks. It looks like they went on vacation. But, when a teenager disappears, there’s a lot of explaining to do. That’s something Claire and Toby have been spending a lot of time dealing with, I think, in a humorous way.

How much fun has it been exploring these sidekick characters and having them step up to the plate?

It’s been a lot of fun. We always say in the writers’ room that the show is not "Trollhunter." It’s Trollhunters. This is really the season that Claire and Toby, particularly Claire, come into their own. Our hope is that by the end of the season, you wouldn’t think of Toby or Claire as sidekicks. You would think of them as full-fledged members of this team of Trollhunters in their own right. Especially in respect to Claire, it’s really exciting knowing where they are heading. Fans of Claire and Toby will be really satisfied with what happens with them.

Can you tease what brings the gang back together?

They are joined in this desire to get Jim out of the Darklands. How that happens is certainly a spoiler. It will take everyone being at the top of their game, making some very challenging choices, to get Jim back home. There will be consequences. It will not be easy, and it will not be without ramifications throughout the rest of the season.

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Who is the new big bad this season and in what ways will he test the Trollhunters’ mettle?

It’s the biggest bad of all. It’s Gunmar. The very first name you actually hear in the first episode of Trollhunters is Gunmar. We’ve been talking about him, and fearing him, for an entire season. Now, we finally get to see him and deal with him. If we’ve done our jobs correctly, you’ll really be hoping and praying he doesn’t get out of the Darklands to threaten our world.

How much world-building are you getting to do this year? Are you introducing any new characters?

What makes this season so special is we get to expand on all the world building we did in Season 1. I feel like we built the engine and now we get to see what the car can do. At the same time, there are new characters and new concepts. There’s the evolution of existing characters. Steve and Eli really come to the fore in a way they didn’t in Season 1. There is the introduction of a whole new troll organization, as well as a whole new fighting group. There are some new things, but, also, we get the chance to play with all the concepts and characters that were beloved from Season 1.

Let’s geek out a bit. Mark Hamill is voicing a character. What was it like collaborating with Luke Skywalker himself?

The whole thing is really an exercise in not embarrassing yourself. You meet Mark Hamill and you want to be cool and professional. You want to tell your 7-year-old self, who first met Luke Skywalker, to shut up and stop embarrassing me. I will say that it helps a lot that Mark is the consummate professional. He really is an actor’s actor. He’s got a great sense of humor. He has unbelievable talent.

A lot of people just know him as Luke Skywalker. They don’t know he’s an incredibly accomplished and very experienced voice actor. There’s a reason for that. There’s a reason why he’s so good. He really has game. Every little adjustment, every little note that the directors give him, he just nails. He brings his character to life in an amazing way. It also helps that Mark is a fanboy himself. He’s also a geek. He knows about genre. He knows about comic books. All the things that influences us in doing Trollhunters, he’s steeped in. He segues into this world with what looks like incredible ease. It’s a joy.

The first season of Trollhunters moved fairly quickly. How challenging was it maintaining that momentum and pace?

I would say not that challenging. We basically took the same approach as Season 1, even though Season 1 was 26 episodes, we still thought of it as two chapters of 13 episodes. We basically applied the same process in terms of breaking out the season. We call it “The Grid,” but it’s actually an excel spread sheet where we have a column for each episode.

We know what’s going to happen in terms of the plot and in terms of the characters. We know what the themes of the episodes are going to be and what the subplot developments are going to be. We go into the season knowing all of that ahead of time. That’s not to say we don’t take liberties and aren’t inspired by things. Sometimes we will throw an episode out and replace it with something else.

In many ways, because Season 1 did the heavy-lifting of introducing you to all these characters, and introducing you to all these concepts and worlds, I wouldn’t say Season 2 is easier, but we had more freedom to hit the ground running and go. There wasn’t as much pipe laying as there was in Season 1.

If last year was all about the journey of the hero, what is the theme for Season 2?

I’d say it is about friendship. In Season 1, we created this group of Trollhunters, these five characters. But, they truly become a true team and a true family during the course of Season 2. That’s because we are throwing things at them that really require them to close ranks with each other, and really be there for each other. So, family is my preferred way of thing about Season 2.

Season 2 of Trollhunters is now on Netflix.