Teresa Palmer explains why they didn't include Diana's miscarriage in season 2 of A Discovery of Witches
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Inevitably, making the jump from page to screen means some things get left behind in the storytelling.
It's a challenging part of adapting any novel, deciding what will fit the flow and time constraints of the televisual storytelling. When it came to season 2 of A Discovery of Witches that meant making some tough choices about what to bring over from the Deborah Harkness novel, Shadow of Night, and what to leave on the page.
One major storyline from Matthew (Matthew Goode) and Diana's (Teresa Palmer) complex love story was absent — Diana's miscarriage. In the novel, after believing that it's not possible for her and Matthew to conceive across species, she discovers she's pregnant, only to lose the child, sending both her and Matthew into a swirl of grief amidst their hunt for the mysterious Book of Life across 16th-century Europe.
Palmer, who stars as Diana, was disappointed by the change. "I really fought for the miscarriage to be included in the series," she tells EW. "As a woman who's had a miscarriage herself, I thought it was really pertinent to the story and the journey of Matthew and Diana. And also just to show the fragility of life and new life and bringing babies into this world."
Sundance Now/Bad Wolf
But ultimately, she says it was because the writers didn't feel they had the time available in the storytelling to tackle such a sensitive subject with the space it required. "For the writers and [executive producer] Jane Tranter," reflects Palmer, "I think they really felt as though we couldn't dedicate enough time to mourning and having the true grieving process that you need to have as a woman who goes through something like that and then quickly move back into all the other things we have to navigate through this series and through this season in particular."
Season 2 wrapped up this Saturday on Sundance Now, Shudder, and AMC+, coming to a thrilling conclusion of Matthew and Diana's journey to the past. Season 3 has recently wrapped production, but potential air dates are still to be announced.
For Palmer, who recently announced her own pregnancy and often discusses motherhood on her website Your Zen Mama, the storytelling change is just something that required acceptance on her complicated journey bringing Diana to life.
"It was just one of those really sad things that we weren't able to include it," she concludes. "It's just an unfortunate part of doing these adaptations. You just can't include everything that you want to and I had to come to peace with that decision."
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