UNION OF THE SNAKE

ALL BACK TO KEPLER-22B TO CELEBRATE MOTHER’S NEWBORN IN RAISED WOLVES SEASON TWO

- BRYAN CAIRNS

TALK ABOUT IMMACULATE conception. Raised By Wolves’ first season culminated with the somehow pregnant android Mother giving birth to a massive flying snake. This bonkers twist is par for the course for the sci-fi series, centred on two robots seeking refuge on the desolate planet Kepler-22b. In the future, the Earth’s been ripped apart by religious wars between atheists and the Mithraic, who worship the sun god Sol. Tasked with rebuilding an atheist human civilisation, Mother and Father must raise a brood of young children.

But the divisions between man and machine, faith and godlessness – not to mention monsters lurking in the dark – threaten to jeopardise their plans. When Raised By Wolves returns, it picks up several months after Father and Mother unsuccessfully attempted to destroy her creepy offspring in a pool of magma… and were left for dead in the aftermath.

TRUST ISSUES

“In season two, I kind of see this planet as a haunted house,” showrunner Aaron Guzikowski tells SFX. “The mystery is the engine in terms of what pulls us into the whole story. In season two, we go into the Tropical Zone on the other side of the planet. We are starting to get into a lot more of the relics and remnants of this civilisation that once stood here long ago; who these people were, and what this technology was that they were using, this technology that you actually grow – it’s more akin to farming than engineering.

“Last year, we discovered the creatures on the other side of the planet used to be human beings,” he adds. “The same goes for this side of the planet, except the devolved creatures on this side are marine creatures. Opposed to hiding in the subterranean darkness, they fled to the water.”