With the new year comes new TV shows, like Shadowhunters, a series that will premiere on ABC Family when it becomes Freeform on Jan. 12, and is based on The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. For those who haven't read the books, the story follows 18-year-old Clary Fray, who discovers on her birthday that she comes from a line of Shadowhunters — human-angel hybrids who hunt down demons. She is quickly thrown into a supernatural world of vampires, werewolves, faeries, and warlocks, where her life's journey becomes both thrilling and dangerous. It sure sounds exhilarating, so it should come as no surprise that Katherine McNamara is excited to play Clary Fray on Shadowhunters.
"There are so many things that attracted me to Clary," McNamara says in an interview with Bustle. "She has this great blend of strength and vulnerability that really ebbs and flows throughout the season. It’s fun as an actor to get to play something, to play an arc like that throughout a season."
That said, there's so much more to Clary than meets the eye, which is what McNamara enjoys and hopes others admire as well. There's no doubt her character is the lead hero, but that's not what defines Clary.
Yes, Clary is a heroine, and, yes, she does start to become this warrior, but she’s very flawed. She makes mistakes. She makes selfish choices. She doesn’t think about the consequences of a lot of her actions. She ends up hurting some of the people that she loves throughout the series, but she learns from it and she grows from it. Yes, she is half-angel, but her humanity really stands out.
The fact that Clary is multi-dimensional and part of a convoluted world allows for McNamara to portray an interesting, yet complex character. What makes for a greater role than that? Plus, Shadowhunters is an opportunity for fans to appreciate The Mortal Instruments story all over again and see the characters come to life on the small screen.
"I’m most excited for people to see this world and these characters come to life," the 20-year-old actor says. "Cassie [Clare] created such a rich world and such amazingly deep and developed characters in the books and ... the rest of the team at Freeform and Constantin have brought the characters to life in the series in a way that pays respect to Cassie’s version, but still has fresh aspects and something that new and something different and an extra element of magic that people haven’t seen before. I’m very excited to share that with people."
How can she not be? And fans will finally get to see McNamara bring Clary to life when Shadowhunters premieres on Freeform on Jan. 12 at 9 p.m.
Images: John Medland/ABC Family; ABC Family/YouTube
