THE MAGICIANS’ Jason Ralph teases the fourth season of the series and the one he calls ‘Bri-Guy.’

So, if you recall, the season three finale of The Magicians had most of the major characters without their memories and assuming new identities, including one Brian, played by Jason Ralph. At this point, Quentin doesn’t exist, and we don’t know when exactly, or if exactly, Quentin or the rest of his mates gets their memories back. Ralph lets us in on this new character that he plays in the beginning of the first part of the season. Jason already has a nickname for the dude. “I like to refer to as ‘Bri-Guy.’ He has a different outlook on the world than Quentin ever did.”

We know Quentin wasn’t the constantly optimistic guy, and maybe that wasn’t always good, Q at least knew there was trouble and has had to deal with evil in different forms. But Brian, well, let’s just say he’s probably not ready for what’s to come. “I think Brian has a rosier view of the world, and this character’s been thrust into the hands of a murderous… psychopathic… child… beast thing, and is getting a crash course in the idea that magic exists,” said Ralph.

So, do we get to see a bit of Quentin in Brian? Maybe. No one will say for sure, but we think Jason does hint at it a bit. “For that reason, it’s cool. It’s cool to— someone who is in the spirit of the person he was before. He comes equipped with the same— let me take that back. It’s the same spirit, but I think the way he responds to stimulus is very different.” Not only that, but Brian is going to have to deal with being covered in blood a lot, according to Ralph. As to whose blood he’ll be covered in, we don’t know.

What’ll be interesting is how these “new” characters deal with magic in their world. “We get to see these people experience magic all over again, and cool to do it a brand new way. I think Quentin was skeptical and kind of perpetually disappointed with the things that he learned and found out about what magic was, because he needed it. It was something that he needed to solve the big problems in his life. He wanted a quick fix and it couldn’t do that.”

In regards to Quentin’s sexuality which was highlighted in season three’s “A Life in the Day,” Ralph took it not as a challenge for Q, but as just part of who he is:

“I think the question of Quentin’s queerness is an interesting one, and one that… we don’t have to talk about,” suggested Ralph. “I believe that sexuality is a spectrum and I think Quentin falls somewhere in the middle of that, and I don’t think it’s something that— I think he’s anxious about a lot of things in his life and the fact that he’s not quite anxious about that is a little bit remarkable, and something that I’m choosing to lean into.”

We continued on about that particular episode, which was a favorite of many, and which Jason and “Hale will say the same thing, one of our favorite episodes to shoot, our favorite one to read, we were so excited to get to do it. It’s a very fast-paced show that we’re on – with high stakes, very life and death oriented – and excited to get to have an opportunity for these characters to have small struggles that build up to changing life experiences. It’s not something we get to do on the show often, and there’s so much character growth that happens in that episode.” Ralph noted that, “Quentin and Eliot have a very profound relationship in the books and one that the show sometimes glosses over just because of time. We allude to them being [?], we don’t have the opportunity to see it often and this was the first time we got to do that. So, it was  little of a dream come true for Hale and I to finally have the opportunity to really investigate those things about these guys, whom we fell in love with when we read the books.”

As far as the relationship between Quentin and Alice, well, it will go into another season of change, which, in reality, shouldn’t be a surprise. For those still shipping the two, Jason said, “They’re relationship will never be the same. But that’s the life, right? You wouldn’t expect it to. They’re very different people and they’ve hurt each other in ways that I think surprised both of them. I think they’re intrinsically entwined; I don’t think that’ll go away. I don’t think they’ll ever not be a part of each other’s lives in some fashion.”

Season four of The Magicians will premiere on Syfy in 2019.