“Shadow and Bone” sharpshooter Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) keeps his guns close, but he keeps his past and true identity even closer.
In “Shadow and Bone” Season 2, Jesper and the Crows are back in action, set mostly against the plot of “Siege and Storm” and “Ruin and Rising” by author Leigh Bardugo. Jesper remains the talkative one who has a flare for theatrics and the dramatic, but it turns out that he still has parts of him left to be revealed.
“Jesper’s quite unique in the Grishaverse in that he’s kind of the only secret Grisha,” Young told TheWrap. “Everybody’s on some level, if not out and proud, then it’s known, it’s something that is known about people and so to be hiding that about yourself, as it says quite a lot, I think, in this world.”
Jesper is a Durast, a Grisha title that technically falls under the Materialki order of those who can manipulate matter. Jesper is Zemeni though, and the Grisha of Novyi Zem prefer not to restrict their powers to one specific category.
“It’s like a private coming out party in a way. I think he really kind of is on a journey of self discovery in that way,” Young added. “He’s got his reasons for [hiding this part of himself] — his kind of personal family trauma, and he’s never really gotten over that.”
During a scene in Shu Han where the Crows go to find a mystical knife that can cut through shadow, three out of four of the group succumb to hallucinatory nectar, and Jesper visits his dead mother who admires how far he has come as a Grisha.
“He distracts himself with other things. The gunslinging is one big distraction because, if he is that good a marksman, you don’t have to spin [the guns] all the time,” Young said. “He’s built this whole persona, this whole act and lives that way. And it’s really only people within this group amongst these characters that can see through that.”
Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) reveals early on in Season 2 that he knows Jesper is a Durast based on his ability to fix things without tools or moving at all really, and his bullseye aim with his pistols. Jesper’s careful curation of his image and appearance through fashion also covers up his deeper self.
“I’m completely spoiled when it comes to costumes and what I get to wear. There’s this red leather jacket that feels very Matrix-y and everybody got to see the costume before me and everyone was like, ‘I want that jacket,’” Young, who worked with Laurence Fishburne on “The School for Good and Evil,” added. “It’s an extension of that personality. He’s been kind of unabashedly himself, but he’s choosing which version of himself to be.” And that’s really, really fun to play with because we all do that.”
At the red carpet premiere of the Netflix series’ second season, Young told TheWrap that he filmed episodes 5 and 6 of “Shadow and Bone” Season 2 while shooting the intro scene to the Netflix film “The School for Good and Evil,” in which he portrays a set of twins — Rafal and Rhian — who duel to the death sword fighting.
“I truly didn’t know who I was – I was going back and forth between three different characters,” he said. “I kept thinking ‘Is it gun day or is it sword day?’”
Familiar with fantasy, Young expressed gratitude for the ability to use “Shadow and Bone” to portray a common human experience.
“If you are hiding something about yourself, you’re telling a story that is relatable today with something that’s completely fictional, and that was kind of it means that the the barriers are down,” he said. “You can do whatever you want, really. It was a real treat to get to do that.”
