In the first iteration of The Librarian, the story was Earth-bound and the cultural touchstone was Indiana Jones. How much has the universe of The Librarians changed that?

We've expanded this universe quite a bit, and I go back and forth with how I feel about that. I like the onion to get peeled very slowly, and the introduction of different worlds, and dimensions, or other surrealistic characters suddenly makes the parameters of our universe very vast. It's great for storytelling possibilities, but makes it a little bit harder for the audience to understand what the rules of the game are, in my opinion. So we now place the library as not so much the only repository of the relics, but the castle keep in this vast universe with all these different people trying to find it.

Where does the second season pick up the story?

We finish season one and he and Eve Baird (Rebecca Romijn) have begun this little romance with each other. All the librarians have these little clipping books and scatter to the wind chasing down relics, and taking on missions, more individually than teaming up as a group. And Flynn and Baird have gotten to spend a lot more time together so he tends to steal her away from the group, and they go off on these romantic adventures. And that's where we find them. [But] something is afoot, something is not right with the library ... rooms are suddenly shifting, artifacts aren't quite where we left them and these are all tiny little clues that become the catalyst for this season long arc, that we have a big bad guy, the wizard, Prospero, who has come alive from the pages of The Tempest.

How much has Flynn Carsen changed since you created him?

In the first movie he's the guy who has never left the world of academia, he's got 27 degrees but never really had a job, never kissed a girl, he lives at home with his mother, and then he gets this opportunity that changes the trajectory of his life. In subsequent movies I tried to make him a little more game, more mature whilst still finding those moments of naivety and insecurity. When we had a seven year gap between the movies and the beginning of this series, it seemed an ideal opportunity to really reinvent the character again. We've made him a little bit more eccentric, and little bit more dissociative, somebody who – because he lives in this world of magic, relics and adventure – doesn't really understand how the real world works anymore.

Do you feel a little less contained in the role? The other role audiences know you best for was Dr John Carter in ER?

Totally. This had really been the only role I have been able to stretch my comedic wings with, and it came as an antidote initially. I got the offer to do the first movie right in the middle of ER's apex so from dealing with cancer, dead babies, and homeless people all day long, suddenly the chance to go off and do an adventurous romp seemed like the ideal antidote to do something different. To a certain extent at the beginning of ER, Carter was the comic relief, but he eventually matured.

Your costume, it's very dapper, but it has a touch of Doctor Who about it.

The bow tie tips it over. But Doctor Who did not invent the flamboyant costume. There's a little bit of Oscar Wilde, Nikola Tesla. I have a great photo display from great thinkers, and artists from the nineteenth and twentieth century. I picked out pieces from all of them that I like, and with our costume designer pulled things that we could put together. I don't mind going plaid on plaid, I think it's an interesting idea. I have a lot of input into my costume. I like it to feel a little bit nonsensical, an English gentleman mixed with a wild artistic flair.

So, what are the dynamics of Flynn and Eve's relationship?

As with any story, the ramp up to a relationship is interesting, the dissolution is interesting, the conservation, and the maintenance ... not so interesting. We're always looking to put obstacles in the way of true love, and to have two characters just miss each other with their intentions, and that's what we really tried to do this season. They come back and Flynn thinks it's great to have a girlfriend and she thinks, yes, but we still have a job to do. Then there's this philosophical difference of opinion on how they should work. She's a strategist, she thinks they should come up with a plan of action before they go out. He's a fly-by-the-seat of his pants, instinctual kind of guy. And that's the difference of opinion that keeps them from being on the same page this year.

WHAT

The Librarians season two

WHEN

Universal, Thursday, 8.30pm