Snowpiercer Cast On Saving The World To Save Your Friends In Season 3 [Interview]

Season 3 of TNT's post-apocalyptic science fiction series "Snowpiercer" premieres tonight, continuing its journey onboard the titular train that is keeping the remainder of known humanity alive in a frozen world. 

"Snowpiercer" season 2 saw the authoritarian Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean) take control over his long-independent Snowpiercer, while its original leader Melanie (Jennifer Connelly) left to find a location warm enough for humanity to start retaking the Earth's surface. The season's end saw ousted protagonist Layton (Daveed Diggs) and his allies commandeer and separate the last 10 cars as a "pirate train," seeking to find Melanie and liberate Snowpiercer (basically, humanity) from Wilford's coercive hands. 

With the "Snowpiercer" season 3 premiere on the horizon, I spoke with stars Daveed Diggs (Andre Layton), Mickey Sumner (Bess Till), and Iddo Goldberg (Bennett Knox) about their characters, and found out some of what the upcoming episodes have in store for fans.

Andre Layton undergoes a lot of hardship and mistrust to work for the greater good. What animates him as a character to so continually put himself at risk, and where is he at for "Snowpiercer" season 3?

Daveed Diggs: I think my whole hype about Andre is ... down at the bottom of everything, he just believes in people. Before he had the tail [of the train] to care about, and then he became a politician ... which meant he didn't have any friends. And now he has another sort of new family that has coalesced around him. 

I think that's kind of his driving force for season 3 — it's the people around him who are showing themselves to be his true family. And that still, at the end of the day, means you got to try to save the world or we're all dead anyway! [laughs] So I think Layton's just trying to stay alive with his friends ... and if we can do that, we're alright.

That's a very relatable part of the series. You just try and stay alive and save the world and then we're all fine.

Daveed Diggs: That's it.

Absolutely. Mickey, my next question is for you. Bess is easily one of the more badass characters in the series. I wanted to ask you to talk a little bit about the fight sequences and if there are any really interesting ones that we should look forward to in "Snowpiercer" season 3?

Mickey Sumner: I loved doing all the fight sequences in the past seasons and learning the stunts and working with the amazing stunt team, and my stunt double makes me look way better than I actually am! For season 3, I think we might see a bit of a softer side of Bess Till.

Perfect.

Mickey Sumner: Yeah, there's no ax. Just so you know, the ax has been put down.

No longer needed here.

Mickey Sumner: No longer needed.

Bennett has a really complicated history between Melanie going off into the wilderness and everything else. Where's Bennett in "Snowpiercer" season ,3 and what's in store for him?

Iddo Goldberg: I think he's essentially just trying to fulfill everything that Melanie set out to do when she left the train, and I think to him that represents hope. Kind of like what Daveed was saying, I think a lot of our characters are in this space now where the most important thing is to do everything you can for everyone that's on this train now. I think that's the thing that bonds most of these characters together; they are not selfish enough in this situation to all agree that this is the one thing that they all need to do. So I think that's where he is, and obviously [he is] dealing with the fact that [Melanie is] not on the train. I think that's a big thing that weighs on him.

Final question for Daveed ... one theme that repeatedly comes through every season of the show is the relationship between loyalty and leadership. Layton struggles to build that loyalty in the process of becoming a leader, and Mr. Wilford struggles to keep it from the moment he has the train onward. How do their strategies differ, and how does that come into play more in season 3?

Daveed Diggs: Yeah, it does continue to come into play. Wilford is a dictator, but I think he fancies himself a good one. He does believe that his methods work, and that one of the ways that you inspire people is by being the richest, flyest, most impressive, the logical endpoint of what you can do as long as you obey the rules of society... or [otherwise], as Layton believes, in a false democracy, right?

Layton is equally flawed on the other side of things. He believes in it, really strongly believes in a democracy that doesn't work. So, I think that they are two flawed ideological systems trying to find a middle ground, which is among the more evident allegories that we... We live inside a world very much like Snowpiercer all the time. Generally, no matter where we are in the world we are subject to essentially two major combating ideologies, neither of which are actually working.

"Snowpiercer" season 3 premieres tonight at 9/8c on TNT. It will be available outside of the U.S. on Netflix from Tuesday, January 25.