The second season of The CW’s Nikita was all about “Home” and at the end of the season, they had found it when Team Nikita had returned to and taken over Division. Populr sat down with the cast and creator and talked about what’s to come and the new theme for Season Three.
“This season’s theme is ‘family,’ Nikita Executive Producer Craig Silverstein told us. “They’ve got their home now and they’re all in it. Nikita’s a loner and she’s gathered this sort of ragtag bunch around her and it’s very Avengers-like that way. It’s about seeing their family grow strong and start to fracture.”
Going into the new season, the dynamic has completely changed and is tested right away. “Now that they have to run Division, it’s psychologically going to be more difficult for them,” explains Shane West. “They’re now practically living together in Division as well, so that’s going to cause a lot of conflict. There was conflict already at the end of the second season, but now they have to work together and they’re pretty much forced to by the president. It’s going to make things more unique and I think it’s going to make things a little more personal as well. I think they’re going to be a lot more intimate scenes, and I don’t necessarily mean sexual, but intimate as in getting into the characters more, seeing how their relationships can actually connect from episode to episode.”
West also discussed the many power struggles we’d be seeing this season. “You’ll see that in the first episode from everyone. It won’t be reliant on Nikita just being hard-headed or Michael being hard-headed, there’s a lot. And also Ryan’s gotta take over now, he’s running this. You’re going to see a lot of conflict with him and the other characters which he hasn’t really had yet.”
“The tables have turned completely,” said Maggie Q on the shift of power in Division and how her character has changed. “What’s interesting about Nikita’s journey in this season, she’s definitely allowed more privileges than she’s ever had. She’s not looking over her shoulder anymore. But the flipsde is that she has a boss now, which she’s never had. She works for the government again which is ew. So I think that’s going to be a point of sort of head butting for her and her new friends.”
Because Nikita had a history in Division where she became a trained assassin, was going back and taking over going to feel weird for her psychologically? “Totally!” said Q. “There’s actually a line in the first script where she walks in and looks at Michael and says, ‘Yeah, I’m still not used to coming back.’ We’ve redesigned Division which is nice. They’ve done some reno, the government dropped some dough for some reno. Essentially the bones of it are the same. They’ve made it a little more people friendly. You’re not going to see recruits training anymore, obviously they’re not doing that anymore, and it’s going to be a more integrated environment.
Nikita Season Three premieres tonight at 9|8c on The CW.