Tina Rowden/FOXTom Mison is just as curious as you are to find out where Sleepy Hollow will go in season four now that it's missing leading lady Nicole Beharie, who was killed off at the end of season three. The show followed the time-traveling Ichabod Crane (Mison) and cop Abbie Mills (Beharie) as they investigated supernatural phenomena (including the one that allowed Crane to wake up hundreds of years in the future). Now that one half of the Ichabbie team is gone, how will the show continue?
"I always thought of Ichabod as the sidekick," he told The Realistic Optimist and other outlets at London MCM Comic Con over the weekend. "Abbie is the one the audience can relate to so when you're entering this insane world of Sleepy Hollow, you go with Abbie. She's been the guide and Ichabod is this insane man in the periphery."
He continued, "I never really was, funnily enough, interested in Ichabod's backstory in the beginning…that changed a lot in season two when they then did start to explore Ichabod's backstory and family and things, so it'll be interesting to be where they go without that crutch because I still think Abbie was grounding that as well. I'll be very curious to see whether they decide to find another way to ground Ichabod in reality or whether they think he's an inhabitant of the modern era enough that he can do it on his own. I don't know what they're planning, but I don't envy them having to make that decision!"
Mison also addressed the outcry over Beharie's character in particular dying. "When you have a woman of color in the lead role, it's not just a woman of color in the lead role. It immediately means so much more than that across the whole of America. There's a woman of color in a position that not very long ago she wouldn't have been," he said. "It comes to symbolize so much more. So when something like this happens, when they kill off said character, of course it's going to mean an awful lot more, consequently."
Before you worry too much, don't fret: Mison said he and Beharie are still friends in real life. But as the writers sit down to begin planning season four, Mison does have a few hopes for his character.
"It seems to have been set up that Ichabod will go and join this new organization set up by Washington," he explained. "I would really like, particularly if it does take Ichabod to Washington, we are entering into one of the weirdest times in modern American history. To have Donald Trump running for president—that's weird! That's just weird. And I think if we are going to be shooting in Washington we shouldn't hide from the fact that there has to be some dark underground force that is making this surreal turn of events happen."
Sleepy Hollow will return midseason on Fox.