Star Michael Emerson says goodbye to his most villainous role yet as Evil ends its run
Evil has always been an exploration of the unknown, but when the series about mysteries involving the supernatural entered its fourth season, the questions about what shall pass shifted largely from onscreen to offscreen. Having filmed most of the season before the actors’ strike in 2023, one of its stars, Michael Emerson, started to feel some uncertainty about the final instalment’s airing prospects. “Everything got a bit up in the air and wonky after the actors’ strike,” he tells TV Week. “At some point I thought, well, I know Paramount+ is in some trouble and they might want to pull the plug on this. I didn’t go as far as to think that they might not even air a full season that was in the can, but I suppose everything was on the table.”
The series from the creators of The Good Wife and The Good Fight, Robert and Michelle King, has now officially been cancelled at Paramount+ — a somewhat-ironic decision, considering the first two seasons have just found U.S. success via reruns on Netflix. The final new episode hits Paramount+ on Thursday, August 22, and luckily, to wrap things up, the Kings were given four additional episodes on top of the initial order of 10. “Now we have a season 4 and 4B sort of thing,” Emerson muses. “I don’t know who had enough clout to say, ‘Look, you’ve got to finish this up somehow for the audience’ . . . The Kings are a team that you want to keep around and maybe make compromises for. I’m glad [Paramount+] did.”
As we near the end, Leland’s journey has certainly not been an easy one. Having brought the Antichrist into the world, the series’ villain must now suffer the very mundane consequences of raising a baby. “It was a lot of fun and a lot of work,” Emerson reflects. “I’d say it’s fairly funny in its own way and horrible at the same time, but it’s fun to see Leland in distress. And what could be worse than a difficult baby, whether it’s demonic or not? He’s out of his league. There are horrors greater than he can muster.”
Indeed, these final episodes fully lean into Emerson’s talents for comedy, a character twist that maybe wasn’t so obvious from the start. “I always thought that, of the sinister or villainous characters I play, he was goofier in a more dangerous, terrible way,” the actor explains. “He seemed, to the audience, more sinister at the beginning. He was a kind of unknown quantity. I think the arc has been for the audience, not so much for me. I’m playing him pretty much as I found him in the pilot, which is a mischief-maker who delights in the mayhem he causes.”
At the outset, while he was playing up Leland’s more humourous moments, Emerson wasn’t entirely sure if the more fun aspects of the role were what the creators had in mind. “It took me awhile to realize that the character was meant to be fun by the Kings,” he says. “For a little while there, I thought I was secretly having too much fun with it — and that there was probably somebody who was going to give me some notes. But the notes never came. They were actually happy with whatever I was doing.”
In the show’s exploration of the unexplained, the arcs of its three leads, priest David (Mike Colter), psychologist Kristen (Katja Herbers) and tech guy Ben (Aasif Mandvi), have found the characters’ perspectives shifted and broadened throughout the course of the series. “I’m thinking the characters and the actors who play them would feel like there’s been some blurring or blending of position,” says Emerson. “That David has more questions about the Church than he originally did, that Kristen has more questions about her own goodness or badness, and that Ben is ultimately a bit haunted by the things he has been unable to explain or control.”
Until the end, Evil continues its reckoning with the collision of religion and science, faith and pragmatism — which are themes Emerson finds fascinating. “I think this is a conversation that [the Kings] have as a married couple, and they brought it to light in a schematic or allegorical way,” he says. “Issues of faith exist. They certainly do for Robert and Michelle, and I think they’re happy to make that a public discussion and a piece of adult entertainment at the same time. Maybe that’s the chief pleasure of the show, that it opens that kind of realm of conversation.”
While most of the work on this final season had been completed before the strike, cast and crew all rallied to return for its conclusion. “I worried that we might lose some personnel, but everybody hung in there,” says Emerson. “I think everybody likes the show. The work was good and jovial. It always has been on that show. And lots of great guest stars.” As for the creative aspect of ending the series, however abruptly, these last four episodes fulfil their purpose. “It made a lot of sense,” he teases, “and I think left it open-ended enough that it could have a future life.”
Evil, streaming Thursday, August 22, on Paramount+