Look, we all know that Sleepy Hollow has some big shoes to fill when it comes to giving our beloved Ichabod Crane a new partner in demon hunting. And, while none of us was prepared for the necessity of a non-Abbie Mills Witness before the end of Season 3, we now have to accept that our favorite Leftenant is gone for good. Well, we finally know who's going to be helping Crane in the fight against evil. Actress Janina Gavankar has signed on to pay Diana in Season 4.
Sleepy Hollow announced a couple of weeks ago that a new character, then named Anna, would be coming to the show in order to fill the Abbie Mills co-Witness part that the series kind of needs to keep rolling. And now, thanks to TVLine, we have a much more complete view of the character, especially since we know who will be playing the, apparently, newly named Diana. Janina Gavankar made her debut in the short film Why Is God... in 2001, and has gone on to rack up an impressive list of almost 60 credits. She's probably best known for her role as Sam's shapeshifter girlfriend Luna on the fourth and fifth seasons of True Blood, and for her recent work on NBC's The Mysteries of Laura. Gavankar has also appeared on My Boys, Stargate: Atlantis, Grey's Anatomy, The L Word, The Gates, Arrow, The Vampire Diaries and The League.
Diana is a Special Agent with Homeland Security who will end up working closely with Ichabod, which makes sense, seeing as how he was picked up by a very serious looking group of federal agents in the Season 3 finale. Diana is also an action-oriented former military officer, who happens to be a single mother, as well. She'll be filling what I can safely call the Dana Scully role on Sleepy Hollow, at least for a time, since the character will not be a believer in any of the supernatural shenanigans that take place in the show, and this will, of course, lead to some conflicts with Crane. He will appreciate her willingness to do anything for her daughter, though, and once Diana loses her partner, the two will be able to bond over that shared experience. Then, we'll find out that they share something much bigger than either of them could have imagined. Right now, the part of Diana is only a guest-starring gig.
As shocked as I was to see Abbie Mills go, I have to admit that I like where this whole Diana thing is going. While the Ichabbie relationship provided a good emotional hook for the show, if the producers weren't interested in getting the two together romantically, I'm not sure what else there would have been to do with their relationship. Abbie and Ichabod were already as close as two people could be without bumping uglies, so maybe it was best that actress Nicole Beharie decided to leave the show. It opened up some new, hopefully positive, possibilities for the narrative of Sleepy Hollow that might actually revive the creative direction of the sagging series.
Well, we can all check out Janina Gavankar's Diana when Sleepy Hollow returns to FOX at midseason.
