To protect those she loves, Queen Mary is determined to take Queen Elizabeth’s throne on “Reign.”
Mary made the pledge in front of Gideon in the “Reign” Season 3 finale. And, when things pick up on The CW show, which begins its final season on Friday night, Mary will working on taking more power.
AccessHollywood.com caught up with Adelaide Kane to chat about all the drama that awaits fans of the show in the episodes ahead.
AccessHollywood.com: How hard is Mary going to fight this season? She’s like, ‘I’m going to get power.’
Adelaide Kane: So we pick up — in the premiere, Mary vows to get revenge for Lola’s death. She wants to know the truth. She wants to know how it happened because obviously she didn’t give the order. So there’s somebody behind this and the question is whether they’re working against Mary, whether this is something personal, whether this is a deeper plot that Mary’s being framed for. And we see a little bit more of the conflicts between Elizabeth and Mary, especially as Mary starts interviewing new suitors that can sort of secure her stronger political alliances so she could potentially take Elizabeth’s throne or make a play for the English throne. We come in hot. We start right off the rails, digging into the good stuff.
Access: And, one of the promo photos shows you with a sword in your hand. How badass is Mary this season? I sort of feel like this is the height of her power. She is claiming all that she can possibly claim power-wise.
Adelaide: Yeah, I mean, she’s really hitting the ground running. She’s trying to make some smarter decisions, trying to be more of a political animal than she has been before. She’s really struggled in Scotland, so she’s actively working to secure her power there and her authority there as a strong leader and you know Mary — she doesn’t want to share her power with anyone, so that’s going to be an interesting conflict between her and potential suitors going into the fourth season.
Access: Let’s talk about Lord Darnley.
Adelaide: Played by Will Kemp, who is amazing, an absolute joy to work with.
Access: Would I be on the right track if I assumed he was going to be a strong wildcard this season. It seems like he could upset the power balance and really throw both of these women’s lives [Mary and Elizabeth] into disarray.
Adelaide: Yes, very much so. So he is one of Mary’s potential suitors, as those who are familiar with the history will already know. As he is an English lord, an English citizen, Elizabeth does everything within her power to try and sabotage or complicate that relationship and Lord Darnley himself is a very powerful man and he becomes quite a wildcard in that the Scottish court really wants a male leader and in his sort of struggle for power with Mary, that kind of complicates their relationship where he isn’t really willing to take a backseat to her as a female ruler. So his sort of pride and his ego become an ongoing issue for his time on the show.
Access: How much will we get to see of Gideon this season?
Adelaide: Gideon is such an interesting character and we do see quite a lot of him in Elizabeth’s court actually, which is very interesting. So he’s not really present in Scottish court any more, but he is very, very present in English court and his friendship with Elizabeth sort of deepens and Mary still has a lot of love for him, of course, but that was a relationship that could never really find fruition in anyway. Not so that she could continue to build her future. And so he’ll definitely be around.
Access: You’ve still got Celina [Sinden] around as Greer. … We’re in the final season of ‘Reign,’ and only one of her ladies in waiting has made it to the end.
Adelaide: I know. Only one’s left. Two have died, one’s [gone] off to a monastery somewhere, but we still have Greer holding strong, holding down the fort, remaining as a support for Mary, which is really wonderful.
“Reign” Season 4 premieres Friday night at 9/8c after “The Vampire Diaries” on The CW.
— Jolie Lash