Chris Wood's Kai Parker did some terrible things on The Vampire Diaries, but the worst thing happened to the actor when he brought Kai back for his first return episode on Legacies. We saw that episode -- "Kai Parker Screwed Us" -- last week on Legacies Season 2. After completing the scene, Chris Wood had this reaction:
I texted Julie Plec after filming and said, ‘This is hands down the worst thing I’ve had to do for any job ever.’
That's what he told TVLine before Legacies Season 2, Episode 12 aired on February 6; and the site confirmed afterward that Chris Wood meant Kai's dive into the Malivore pit at the end of the episode. Apparently the Malivore pit is even more gross in real life than it looks on TV.
It was pretty disgusting. It’s cold and you’re weirdly buoyant in it. I think it’s made of vegetable products? Either way, it got into places that were very difficult to get out of. And they said it’s never happened before, but it actually dyed my skin green. It took two hours to get that stuff out.
It dyed his skin green? That is nasty. But Kai is also nasty. Chris Wood said he had a specific concern about Kai's return after so long in that Vampire Diaries prison world, but that particular issue turned out not to be a problem. Kai returns this week for "You Can't Save Them All," which appears to match a quote Kai says to ... Hope Mikaelson, I think? ... as shown in the promo:
Dark Josie is now feeling the power, and I guess we have to wait and see if Heretic Lizzie is in our future. By the way, Chris Wood told TV Guide he does get to share more scenes with other Legacies stars this week, after spending most of his time with Kaylee Bryant's Josie Saltzman last week:
And I don't want to spoil too much, but the first episode was really just Kai and Josie, really. Kai's next episode, he encounters some other characters and he also uses a tactic that we've never really seen him use before. And it's very fun and kind of silly, but a bunch of people who don't actually know what he looks like but have heard stories might not see him walk in somewhere and know who he is right off the bat. So, he kind of uses that to his advantage in a very entertaining way.
Do you think he's going to pretend to be the new Salvatore School headmaster? Maybe he can also pretend to be Vardemus. Let that be a recurring thing.
As for Kai recurring, we don't really know how Kai is going to end his storyline on Legacies. However, as much as I had hoped The CW's renewal of Legacies for Season 3 would mean more Kai on the Atlanta-based show, Chris Wood did just book a lead role on a new TV show. (Does that mean he won't return for Supergirl too? He does spend a lot of time on that show's Vancouver set, since his wife Melissa Benoist is Supergirl herself.)
Before Chris Wood gave The Vampire Diaries Universe its best villain (according to Ian Somerhalder) in Kai Parker, he recurred on The Carrie Diaries, and later had a main role on The CW's Containment. He played Mon-El for two seasons on Supergirl and one episode of The Flash. He's been around the TV block, so it's kind of impressive that Legacies gave him "the worst" thing he had to do -- and it turned his skin green. If he plays The Hulk in something next, he should ask for that Malivore recipe.
Legacies Season 2 continues Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
