Brandon Sklenar Has Always Known How ‘1923’ Season 2 Would End
[This story contains spoilers from the season two premiere of 1923, “The Killing Season.”]
Brandon Sklenar has been on quite a journey with Spencer Dutton.
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1923, which returned with its second season on Sunday, has been charting the transcontinental escapades for the elder Dutton in the Yellowstone prequel series from Taylor Sheridan. Will Spencer ever make it home to Montana, so he can save his family’s cattle ranch from the threats the Duttons faced in 1923? How will he manage that promise now that he and his soulmate, wife Alex (Julia Schlaepfer), have been separated by bodies of water?
Sklenar had promised a tonal shift for season two. If season one was Spencer’s origin story, season two is poised to show how he rises from the ashes to be the hero. “The pain and the guilt that he’s carrying into this next part is going to shape him into a version of himself that we haven’t seen yet,” he said after the season one finale.
Now speaking with The Hollywood Reporter two years later, Sklenar reveals that he has known from creator-writer Sheridan how this two-season story would end and that, no matter what ends up happening for Spencer, Sklenar says there is more 1923-era Dutton story to tell. “It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read in my life, truly,” he says of the season two finale. (Paramount+, meanwhile, has not confirmed if season two will be the final season of 1923.)
Below, Sklenar teases what’s to come on 1923, while also talking about his physical transformation for season two so he could do his own stunts, why he very much hopes to reprise his role in a sequel for the currently embattled It Ends With Us and what his plans are next.
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Last season ended on this huge and heartbreaking cliffhanger separating Spencer and Alex. Spencer enters this season with two promises — to find Alex and also to save his family and return to the ranch in Montana. Can he accomplish them both?
I think they are ultimately one and the same: His commitment to the people he loves, and it’s unwavering. It’s rooted in his feeling of responsibility to protect these people and make sure they’re OK, and show them how much he loves and cares about them. So they are one and the same.
Spencer is emotionally but also physically not to be messed with when this season opens. Did you train for his arduous journey? How did you get back into character after such a long break?
When I read the episodes, I was like: Ok, I definitely want to come in physically bigger than I was last season. So I put on quite a bit of size. I called Taylor [Sheridan] and I was like, “I think I’m going to get physically way bigger for this season because I want to feel imposing and I want to feel scary and I want to feel solid. And it will kind of work, because he’s been shoveling coal for four months [on his ship] (laughs).”
I’m also two years older, so that just changes your body as well. In terms of training, I had to do a lot of stunts this season and a lot of physically demanding things, so I definitely wanted to be prepared for that so I could actually do all the things myself and be capable in that respect. I grew up doing martial arts so I’m no stranger to punching things, and I enjoy it.
I understand that 1923 was pitched to be a two-season story. Have you known from Taylor Sheridan how it was going to end ever since you began?
They haven’t confirmed if it’s stopping here at season two, but I knew before we left to shoot season one ultimately where this was going. He kind of told me, not the specifics of what as going to happen, but he told me. I’ve always known to some degree how it was going to wrap up at the end of season two.
It was interesting to know where Spencer needs to be emotionally and physically, and having to allude to it in season one but never really go there. You’re playing this cat-and-mouse game and it’s kind of this magic trick where you’re like, how do I just open the window a little bit into letting the audience see what’s in there, but not letting it out fully because I have to save that? It was just such a joy to read these episodes and finally get to go to some cool places with Spencer.
Sheridan has a knack for writing epic and beautiful finales, whether they are series or season enders. How can you describe how the season two ending made you feel when you read it and then filmed where Spencer ends up?
It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read in my life, truly. I’m not just saying that, people say that. It’s genuinely, crazy beautiful. I don’t know how the man does it, but I’m grateful to him ’till the end of time for giving me this gift to play this role and say these words.
Does the ending open the door to continue more of 1923?
This story is going to continue one way or another, and I honestly don’t know. But there’s more Dutton story to be told for sure. [Note: There are several Dutton spinoffs in the works.]
When you were filming, were you aware of how Yellowstone the flagship series was going to end?
No. For my own process, I don’t think about that at all because Spencer doesn’t know what his family is doing in 100 years, so I try and stay in the lane of his reality and his day to day. I’ve since watched the season finale. Me as a viewer, not necessarily having anything to do with Spencer Dutton.
The Yellowstone finale brought the franchise full circle and paid tribute to the 1923 and 1883 characters. Elsa Dutton’s (Isabel May) monologue confirmed there have now been seven generations of Duttons, which, it seems, lines up the Dutton family tree so that Jack (Darren Mann) and Liz Dutton (Michelle Randolph) are the grandparents of John Dutton (Costner). Yet the season opens with Alex pregnant with Spencer’s baby. This is something that we have asked you about, and that you as a cast have speculated about. So, did you get your answer about who the grandparents to Kevin Costner’s John Dutton are in season two of 1923?
We may get an answer to that at some point this season. Yeah we may. I sure hope we do. (Laughs)
Spencer and Alex are such a star-crossed lovers story, and Sheridan doesn’t always write happy endings. Is their journey ahead hopeful, tragic?
It’s all the things. I can’t say anything specially, but I can say it’s all the things all at once. I can’t say anything else! I can say that you will genuinely love it. I think everyone who watches it is going to be moved by it. I’m supremely confident that people will love the arc of every character in the show. Taylor delivered over and above in these pages and in the way he wrote this.
You have been very busy with 1923 and your other roles. What are you looking to take on next?
I’m shooting this film right now, Housemaid, with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. Paul Feig is directing and that’s been a crazy experience playing a different character. I’ve never played any character like this. I’m almost done with that and then I’m going to have a little time off. I’ve been going since June nonstop, so it’s been seven months. I’m excited to just be in my house and my yard, and be Brandon for a while (laughs). I want to spend some time with myself, my family, my friends and my dog.
There is a lot in flux with It Ends With Us, but fans love your character. If there were to be a sequel, are you hoping to reprise your role?
Yeah, absolutely. I don’t know what’s happening with that, but I’m really proud of that movie and what it means and what it stands for. It was deeply personal to me. I’ve got someone very, very close to me who has been in that situation that Lily [Blake Lively’s character] has been in for years, and I’ve been really on the frontlines helping her. So it means a lot to me and I’m just happy that it meant a lot to so many people as well. I would love to continue the story if it ever happens.
1923 releases new episodes Sundays on Paramount+. Read THR‘s season two interview with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.
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