The long-awaited second season of ‘1923’ kicked off with a major reveal
Brandon Sklenar as Spencer in season 2 of ‘1923’
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 2 premiere of 1923.
As if Spencer Dutton didn’t already have plenty to worry about, he’s now going to be a father.
During the season 2 premiere of 1923, Spencer’s wife Alex (Julia Schlaepfer) revealed that she’s pregnant with his baby during a candid moment with Jennifer (Jo Ellen Pellman), with whom she pleaded for help to get passage on a ship to America to reunite with him.
Brandon Sklenar, who plays Spencer, tells PEOPLE of the major bombshell: “I wasn’t surprised.”
“It’s a great storytelling element for sure,” he says, giving credit to creator Taylor Sheridan for the idea. “If there’s any pocket where he can raise the stakes, he’s going to do it. So it makes sense.”
Still, this only adds to the responsibilities piling up on Spencer’s shoulders, as he’s racing back from Africa to Montana to help defend his family’s ranch — at the behest of his aunt and uncle, Cara (Helen Mirren) and Jacob Dutton (Harrison Ford).
“Yeah, his plate is full,” Sklenar, 34, admits of his character.
Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra in ‘1923’ season 2
Along with Alex’s pregnancy reveal, Sklenar says that “everything” about season 2 has been hard to keep under wraps during the major gap between seasons.
“I keep saying it. My friends are always telling me to shut up because even long before we started filming — I had these scripts for six months before we started filming. So it was very difficult to not talk to my friends about it, just, ‘This scene’s so cool,'” he admits.
“They’re fans, they want to see it and they don’t want me to spoil everything, but I’m terrible with it.”
He adds, “I’m just so excited that it’s finally coming out and I can talk about it and people are going to see it because it’s really special.”
Emerson Miller/Paramount+
Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra and Brandon Sklenar as Spencer Dutton in ‘1923’ season 1
The season picks up with Spencer making his way back to the U.S. after he became a game hunter in Africa following World War I. In the emotional season 1 finale, he and Alex were separated, leaving them both to journey to America separately — and hopefully reunite.
Sklenar says it was a “trip” to not be working with Schlaepfer, 29, like he was used to. “It was her and I every day for season 1 for five, almost six months.”
“[It was] definitely a different experience, seeing the different sides of Spencer and this journey that he’s on and having actors come in and working opposite different people all the time,” he says. “The way he is with Alex is a very specific version of himself, and getting to explore other parts of him through these other characters that come in and out was a lot of fun.”
Julia Schlaepfer as Alexandra and Brandon Sklenar as Spencer of the Paramount+ series ‘1923’
Schleapfer felt similarly. “It was very isolating and kind of jarring, which I think actually ultimately worked for the acting performance because that’s what Alex is going through,” she told PEOPLE at the season 2 premiere in L.A. on Feb. 19.
“Brandon and I were kind of partners in crime as humans season 1, and we had each other to rely on, so to have that kind of taken from you…”
Season 2 was thus “the total opposite experience of season 1 for the actress — but “really, really fun to film in a different way.”
The season 2 premiere of 1923 is now streaming on Paramount+.
