'Titans' star Seamus Dever teases Trigon's lingering presence, says his approach to the role was 'just a TV Dad'
Spoilers ahead for 'Titans' Season 2 Episode 1, 'Trigon'
Most people remember Seamus Dever as Detective Kevin Ryan in the ABC series 'Castle'. On the DC Universe show 'Titans' however, Dever plays Trigon, a demonic character who couldn't be more different from his 'Castle' role. The 43-year-old actor told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) in an interview that he is more than happy to be able to move past the image of the "good guy TV cop."
"It’s fun to play a guy who wants dominion over every living soul," Dever said about his 'Titans' role. "I used to play a lot of bad guys in my younger, edgy, angrier years. Now, I’m basically trying to kill the image of me as a good guy TV cop. Hopefully, Trigon helps cloud the waters."
Dever's character Trigon served as the primary antagonist for the first season of 'Titans'. The demon warlord was finally defeated by his daughter Rachel Roth/Raven (Teagan Croft) in the first episode of Season 2. Despite his villainous actions, like mind-controlling Dick Grayson/Robin (Brenton Thwaites) and the rest of the Titans, Dever feels Trigon is really just a TV Dad.
"I auditioned for it when the role came about," Dever said, explaining how he came to join the project. "They liked me and my take on Trigon. So they offered me the role. I tried to play him with the warmth and kindness of a father or a reverend. It was really me trying to sneak up on the whole arch, bad guy thing. They liked that direction for him. Trigon is pretty much just a TV Dad."
Though 'Titans' doesn't strictly follow the comic book source material, Dever still took the effort to do his research on the comics while preparing for the role. He revealed he made a lot of trips to comic book stores trying to read up on the Teen Titans in general and Raven in particular.
"Of course, I had read a few DC Comics growing up but I wasn’t a super avid reader or anything," he explained. "I started doing research on the early 80s Teen Titans series and the recent Raven standalone series. Lots of trips to Golden Apple in Hollywood and Big Pete’s in Vancouver. Must have been weird to see a grown man asking for issues of Raven."
Trigon and his daughter Raven don't exactly have the most loving father-daughter relationship. Despite that, Dever feels the demon actually wants to help the young hero learn to use the full extent of her powers, for his own benefit, of course.
"I think Trigon sees her as a prodigy who is necessary to his plan of getting on Earth," Dever said. "She has an unharnessed power that he wants to groom. I think you’ll see in season 2 that there is a dark view of the world that Trigon wants her to realize."
That dark vision almost came true in the season 2 premiere but thankfully his plans were foiled. Although he was defeated and banished from the earthly plane in the episode, Dever has hinted that Trigon may still have a lingering influence on his daughter moving forward.
"Well, I can tell you from the comic books that Trigon is always a dark presence in Raven’s life and he can appear whenever her anger appears," he teased. "Whether or not that is something we will see remains to be seen."
Now that he has played the role of a supervillain, we asked Dever if he would be interested in playing a superhero. The actor revealed that while he doesn't think he would fit the generic idea of a superhero, he would be interested in doing something a little more "cerebral."
"I don’t really fit into the typical mold of a superhero," he said. "I would think something cerebral like 'Legion' would be interesting. I like the take they’ve done on that. Who knows? I’m available. I like to surprise people with what I can do."
In the meantime, Dever has other projects in the pipeline including a new theatrical production. "I’m currently working on a really cool new play called 'The Abuelas' at The Antaeus Company in Los Angeles," Dever revealed.
Catch Seamus Dever as Trigon in the first episode of 'Titans' Season 2, currently available for streaming exclusively on DC Universe.
