Jade Hassouné Talks ‘Shadowhunters’ [Exclusive Interview]

Shadowhunters is back and better than ever with Season 2B.

I recently spoke with Shadowhunters’ Jade Hassouné about the remainder of the season and what we can expect to see from Meliorn and the Seelies.

On the Season 2A finale, we see Meliorn get stabbed outside, which saves his life as his army is decimated by Valentine inside. Now we’re all wondering when he’ll return.

“Soon. I can’t really tell you when or how, but he’ll be around early in the second half of the season,” Hassouné hinted.

With the Seelie Army falling to the soul sword, it’s  unclear what will happen to the relationship between the Shadowhunters and Seelie’s.

“Meliorn did say he wouldn’t forgive Luke if anything went wrong, and technically it didn’t go wrong because Valentine was stopped and didn’t destroy all of the downworld. But they did lose a lot of the Seelies and a lot of other fighters and warriors, so there might be some repercussions because of that,” Hassouné said.

“The Seelies are always weighing the pros and the cons to see what benefits them in the different fights and wars that happen, so they won’t necessarily be enemies, but they always have every door open so that they can make the right move for their race.”

When Meliorn was first introduced in Season 1, we got to see the light-hearted side to him as he and Izzy shared multiple scenes together. Now, everything we know has been torn apart due to him helping Clary into the sacred fairy realm.

Fans all around wonder if we’ll ever see Meliorn in the same way again. Hassouné spoke to that a bit as well.

“I think so. The cool thing is his leaves are ripped out, and he’s sprouted new ones. He’ll have a kind of darker outlook on things, but he’s indebted to the queen forever, and I think this is something that wasn’t too unexpected. She let him live, so I think so, but maybe not right now in this season. He’ll still be in a dark place throughout the season. There will be moments where you see his old, humorous personality kind of come through. I tried to squeeze it in here and there,” he explained.

As for how Hassouné feels about the character transformation of Meliorn, he’s excited about it. “I love it, honestly, for an actor to be able to play a character that has such a drastic change is such a cool thing, and it’s been a really awesome reveal. It took a while for Meliorn to come back, and I think the upgrade to the warrior aspect is super.”

“It’s been a dream, and I’m very glad to be continuing on this journey. I hope it continues a lot,” Hassouné continued.

At the downworlders meeting towards the end of Season 2A, it seemed as if there was a hint of jealousy in Meliorn’s tone towards Raphael when it came to Izzy. You have to wonder if Meliorn could have included some jealousy in outing Raphael or if it was all political.

“I’m sure there was a bit of jealousy somewhere in there, but mostly political. The Seelies and vampires are known to be allies,” Hassouné noted.

“In the mythology, they’re allies often because in the book, I think book 3, there’s a similar thing happening where people need to reunite. When Meliorn appears he says, ‘I thought you told me the vampires were going to be involved. Now that changes things for me.’ So, it was political, and Raphael knew that eventually he had to join him, but I think that was a good tactic.”

Because Hassouné is such a big fan of the books, he has his own views and thoughts about what goes down on the show. A big question in the world of Shadowhunters is if the downworlders should unite or fend for themselves.

“It depends. There are two types of Shadowhunters; the old generation of Shadowhunters — they feel superior to the downworlders. They feel like they’re a pure-blooded race, so they have a very old school way of thinking of the downworlders, but then the story brings in the new generation of Shadowhunters.”

“I think Clary plays a big part of that because she’s also a very different kind of Shadowhunter. First of all, she used to be human, she thought she was regular and everything, but she also has that special quality about her that makes her different,” Hassouné continued.

When it comes to the political side of Shadowhunters, it’s almost the same as what happens in our own world.

“When Clary comes in it shakes things up and all the other young Shadowhunters unite, and it’s kind of a metaphor for our own world where the new generation comes in with an open mind and more accepting heart.”

“I think that’s what’s happening, so it would be wise to ally with the younger generation of Shadowhunters, the new ones that want to come in and create a world of unified people. But, they would always have to watch out, because the clave and other upper rank have a very different agenda, I think when it comes to that,” Hassouné clarified.

Hassouné wasn’t unfamiliar with the books before joining the show, though he’s always been interested in the supernatural.

“I read the books and a lot of fanfiction. I did not finish the final book just because I don’t want the story to end,” he admitted. “I love it too much, so I’m waiting a little bit until we get towards that part of the series.”

Hassouné said that he’s been “interested in the fairy realm, the elves, the dark elves, and things like that,” for most of his life.

“I kind of took from the different mythologies that I was interested in as a kid, and a teen, and read everything that I could from the mortal instruments before shooting, so that I could really have some knowledge,” Hassouné explained.

When it comes to bringing Meliorn to life on screen, Hassouné praised how his character is written. “He’s written really well, and I kind of went with an intuitive direction to bring him to life, but because he was written so well in the books, I really got a sense of what he was even though it’s very little bits here and there of Meliorn.”

Hassouné didn’t shy away when it came to involving himself in everything fandom as he occasionally brushes up on fan fiction and fan art for Meliorn. “I tried to do as much research as I could; looked at all the fan art I could and fan fiction. I do create whatever I can so that I have some substance behind whatever scene you guys see on TV,” Hassouné said.

He’s not afraid to let the fan inside of him make its way out. “I’m a total fantasy nerd. I’m totally into that. I’m like the biggest fangirl of the series in the show, so that’s a lot of fun.”

When Hassouné has the time to relax and catch up on TV, he always comes back to one show in particular.

“Well, I’m still watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer. That was the ultimate show of my life, and I’m re-watching it for the thousandth time right now. It’s part of why I was so happy about Shadowhunters, because it’s sort of like a new Buffy coming back. I was such a fanboy as a kid, so to be able to be in a show kind of like that is tremendous.”

“I’ve been watching some miniseries; there’s one called Big Little Lies that’s super brilliant. I watch RuPaul’s Drag Race and Survivor,” Hassouné continued.

Some major spoilers for Season 2b include viewers getting to see Meliorn’s home.

“You guys will see his home — his realm. You’ll get to see him interact with new people that you wouldn’t normally expect to see him interact with. It’s a very different group of friends from Season 1. He’s really changed who he’s interacting with,” Hassouné said.

Be sure to catch Jade Hassouné on Shadowhunters, airing Mondays at 8/7c on Freeform.

*Featured image credit: Lesley Bryce

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