Legends trailer: Sean Bean searches for his past

When we last saw superspy Martin Odum and his arsenal of alternate “legend” identities, he had narrowly avoided the fate of most Sean Bean characters. Odum the character had fled his pursuers, and Legends the show was renewed for a second season, perhaps partly due to the viral social media campaign imploring TNT #DontKillSeanBean. When we pick up with Odum again in season 2 of Legends, he’s relocated to London to follow up on the one clue he knows for sure about his past (he used to work for MI6), but as this new trailer demonstrates, there’s a lot that he (and we) still doesn’t know.

The European setting isn’t the only thing that’s different about Legends this time around. New showrunner Ken Biller has promised a shift away from the legend-of-the-week format of season 1 in favor of a serialized story that focuses on one particular legend of Odum’s: a Russian mobster named Dmitry Petrovich. This streamlined focus will allow the show to explore in greater detail the psychological effect of taking on different identities.

“It’s not about changing a wardrobe and putting on an accent and pretending to be somebody for a couple of days while you do an operation,” Biller told EW about the new season. “It’s about really living as another person for a long period of time and how does that affect someone and what does that do to their psyche?”

The trailer gives a few hints as to what those effects might be, as Odum (or whatever his real name is) starts to crack under pressure from gangsters, federal agents, and even former allies. Although some of Legends’ supporting players are back (such as Morris Chestnut’s Agent Tony Rice), Bean will also be surrounded by a host of new characters this season.

“The legends of the title of season 1 were the different personas Sean Bean’s character took on. The legends of the title this year, the plural of that for me, is about who are all these other people? Who are they, really and who do they pretend to be in real life? It’s a very, very different, fresh approach to the material, and I think more novelistic.”

Season 2 of Legends premieres Nov. 2.