Simu Liu and Melissa Barrera‘s The Copenhagen Test took viewers on a wild ride that ended with several shocking cliffhangers and a surprising ending — but could there be a season 2?
In the Peacock series, which premiered on Saturday, December 27, Alexander (Liu) is introduced as an intelligence agent who found out his mind was hacked — causing outsiders to see what he sees and hears. Alexander must piece together who hacked him while trying to prove his allegiance to his own agency.
The finale concluded with Alexander creating a plan to take down the enemy. He realized that his former fiancée, Rachel (Hannah Cruz), gave him the pills that hacked his senses while his friend Victor (Saul Rubinek) engineered the experiment.
Victor ordered the Copenhagen Test but revealed it was part of a larger experiment to prove whether a human could remain loyal and could function amid a fabricated reality. Alexander saw other ongoing live broadcasts — including one that involved Michelle (Barrera) a.k.a a woman Alexander thought he met by chance but she was embedded in his life on purpose as a spy.
“Wherever the show winds up going. It is designed to be ongoing,” creator Thomas Brandon exclusively told Us Weekly. “We’re going to follow two things. Where is the technology going? How does it grow? How does it adapt? How does it evolve? How does that continue to teach us something about this moment?”
He continued: “We also know we’re telling the story of a child of immigrants. We’re telling a story about a first-generation American who has a complicated relationship to loyalty and allegiance and how far is he willing to go to do the right thing. Those are the two tracks we know we’re going on.”
Liu, who was born in China before moving to Canada, and Barrera, who moved to United States from Mexico, reflected on the way the show was told through the lens of an immigrant.
“Just that sense of self is important. It’s really important for us as individuals to realize all the ways that we’re manipulated and conditioned by things and systems around us,” Liu told Us. “Particularly in our upbringing, we’re taught certain things [like], ‘This country is good and that country is bad. These are the good guys and those are bad guys.’”
Liu discussed his own perspective on the concept, adding, “You grow up and you realize that history and all things are just so much more nuanced than that. So this idea of giving blind faith to a government — first of all no government is perfect. Blind faith to a government or to a country [is] weighing that against your own personal moral compass. I just think to have a strong sense of self and to know where you stand and where your sense of right and wrong is. That’s just the most important thing to stand up for what that is and to fight for it.”
The actor noted he always “really, really admired” Barrera’s ability to speak up. (Before The Copenhagen Test, Barrera was fired from the Scream film franchise following her comments about the conflict between Israel and Palestine.)
“What is funny is that most heroes of shows — of any kind of genre — whether it is thrillers or action movies, the hero is always the the person that fights the system and resists the censorship,” Barrera shared. “Or just the weird rules of, ‘You got to do this even though it’s wrong because it’s right for us and it works for our system.’ Even though it’s morally questionable, I feel like it’s just so funny to me that we see and it’s so evident when we’re watching media who we’re rooting for. It’s always the rebel that is fighting against the system. I just find it interesting.”
The Copenhagen Test is currently streaming on Peacock.
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