‘Shadowhunters’ Star Luke Baines Talks Possible Revival Amid ‘Devastating’ Cancellation and ‘Save Shadowhunters’ Campaign

The Shadowhunters fandom was rocked when, in June of 2018, Freeform announced that the popular series would be coming to an end following its third season. What followed was a months-long campaign to save the series. Speaking to PopCulture.com, series star Luke Baines opened up about the cancellation and the “Save Shadowhunters“ campaign as well as his role in any potential revival.

Baines had joined the cast in its final season, taking on the “true form” of Jonathan Morgenstern, and while he had not been there since the beginning, the abrupt cancellation still hit him hard.

“It was devastating. It was devastating on a number of levels,” Baines said. “The hardest thing, I think, was the fact that the crew on that show were probably the best crew I’ve ever worked with. They are just so wonderful and it really was like a family. And a lot of actors say that but that crew was really, really special. And so that was really hard to walk away from.”

Baines, however, was not the only one left “devastated” by the series’ end. After that summer 2018 announcement, fan outcry sparked the “Save Shadowhunters” campaign across social media, that even to this day, months after the final episode aired, is still in full swing.

In the wake of the announcement, a petition on Change.org, titled “Save Shadowhunters,” was created in an effort to get another network or streaming service to revive the series. It also encouraged fans to take the fight to social media using the “SaveShadowhunters” hashtag. In just a little more than a year since its creation, the petition has almost reached 200,000 signatures, with the hashtag being used thousands of times across social media platforms.

A fundraiser at The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community, was also launched, raising nearly $25,000, far surpassing its initial $500 goal.

“It felt like we were letting the fans down. And of course it’s completely out of our control. But there’s so many people who that show means so much to, whether it’s because it’s an escape, or whether they read the books, or they can see themselves in the characters, or because it represents the LGBT community,” Baines said. “And so that was really, really hard to kind of understand why it was happening. Because it was obviously a very popular show, and it just came down to politics really. And so that was hard to kind of feel a part of and feel like you’re letting thousands of people down.”

Although fans’ hopes have not yet come true and Shadowhunters has not been saved by another network or a streaming service, Baines said that should new life be breathed into the series, he would be more than ready to step back into the shoes of Jonathan Morgenstern for a fourth season.

“Absolutely. Without a single moment of hesitation. Yes,” he said. “The character I played was so interesting. There was so much going on and it was so layered. And as an actor it’s absolutely a dream role. And I think the writers had had plans for a season four, specifically for my character and I would have loved to have seen how that would’ve played out. So yes, 100 percent would do it.”

In the wake of Shadowhunters, Baines, who admitted that he made off with some of his characters’ clothing and a few weapons, including a “big sword” that now hangs on his wall, is taking a moment to “decompress” from the whirlwind that the series was.

“I’ve taken a little bit of time off over the summer just to kind of decompress from what Shadowhunters was. It was a really demanding role and I physically hurt myself a lot on it. Because apparently I don’t know how to just…I don’t know how to give 80 percent,” he said. “There’s been a couple of projects that I’ve turned down just because it wasn’t right, or the timing wasn’t right, or it just didn’t feel like the right next step. So I’ve been taking a minute.”

The actor, however, can be seen in the Christopher Piñero-directed suspense thriller A Dark Place, in which he portrays a “very different” character from the one fans are familiar seeing him as on Shadowhunters.

A Dark Place is now available on iTunes, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.