Merlin actors Katie McGrath and Bradley James preview the final season of Merlin to American audiences and look back on the five-year journey.

LA Times’ Hero Complex blog has spoken to the actors ahead of the show’s season 5 premiere on SyFy (which is this Friday, January 4 at 10/9c), and while the show is over for both them and the UK audiences, McGrath and James still have some teasers left for those who don’t know how it’s all going to end. It’s all going to be darker, they re-iterate, and McGrath talks specifically about Morgana becoming a much darker character this year.

The stars reflect on their final days of filming, with McGrath recalling that, “I had Colin [Morgan] come in and do my last clapboard. It was like a carnivorous beast running in and grabbing the board out of everyone’s hands. It was a good laugh.”

On Merlin and Arthur’s relationship, James says that, “I find inspiration [for it] with Colin. We have a lot of fun working together. I’ve been very fortunate that we’ve had such a great working relationship that it’s translated onto the screen.”

James also says that having had the chance to play King Arthur has been an honour, and reflects on the development of Arthur through the five seasons, saying that, “one of the really appealing things about Arthur was the fact that he was far from perfect, and I was aware that I was about to go on the journey of making him so.” And by the end of the series, “he becomes the Arthur that everyone is familiar with in myth and legend eventually, and where we begin with him, that seems like such an impossible task.”

On whether there’s any truths to the rumours about an Arthur-centric spinoff, however, James reckons that, “it’s time for me to hang up the chainmail, to be honest with you, and pass the mantle on to the next person who shall take on the throne of Arthur Pendragon.”

Will you be watching Merlin‘s final season on SyFy this year?