Tobias Menzies Reflects on ‘Manhunt’ Ahead of Finale Fate: “Democracy Is Fragile” 

Tobias Menzies has already caught Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth going into the finale of Apple TV+‘s Manhunt, which will sign off on Friday after seven episodes.

But his character, U.S. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, suffering from chronic asthma during the historical drama gives a strong hint of Menzies’ foreordained fate by the end of the limited series. Spoiler alert: Stanton in real life died only days after being appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1869, meaning Menzies likely won’t be back for a second season of Manhunt — if there is one — to continue Lincoln’s Reconstruction efforts in the South after the U.S. Civil War.

“One of the themes of the TV show is about political costs. That’s what it takes to defend the freedoms and the democracy that we enjoy. And in Stanton, and that story, is partly the sacrifice Stanton makes at the cost of his physical health,” Menzies tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Even as his health dramatically falters ahead of the Manhunt finale, Stanton — after his cat-and-mouse pursuit of Lincoln’s killer — and the trial of his collaborators urges continued support for Reconstruction for a United States that is at a crossroads, and having to make compromises for reconciliation during an era that echoes today.

Menzies points to modern parallels for the Apple drama between 1865 and a turbulent modern-daywhere racism, bigotries and the threat of conflict persist. Renewed debate in the U.S. over the Confederate flag as a cultural symbol, he says, is one reason to revisit the era, and stop-go efforts towards Reconstruction.

“In the United States, some of these ideas persist still and why it’s interesting to revisit these arguments, what was fought over in that Civil War — that feeds into this story,” he says. “It’s interesting to tell this story at this moment, because one of the arguments the piece puts forward is that democracy is fragile, and that it has to be defended and defended every day to uphold the institutions and the democratic traditions that underpin the freedoms we enjoy.”

With Stanton headed to the grave, Menzies hasn’t been involved in conversations about a possible second season of the Apple TV+ conspiracy thriller. And he says he has made peace with that.

“I like the fact that Manhunt is seven episodes. There’s a lot of TV out there that should be six or seven episodes, but it’s 10 and you can feel episodes that are a bit strung out to make it longer,” he says. “I feel good about the story that we’ve told. You’d have to be very clear about what the next story was that we were telling [if there were to be a second season].”

Manhunt releases its finale Friday on Apple TV+.