About Snowpiercer Season 1 – TV Series

Snowpiercer Season 1

Snowpiercer is an American post-apocalyptic dystopian thriller television series that premiered on TNT on May 17, 2020. It is based on both the 2013 film of the same name, directed by Bong Joon-ho, and the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette, from which the film was adapted.

The series, a reboot of the film’s continuity, follows the passengers of the Snowpiercer, a gigantic, perpetually moving train that circles the globe carrying the remnants of humanity seven years after the world becomes a frozen wasteland. The series questions class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival. Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs star alongside Mickey Sumner, Alison Wright, Iddo Goldberg, Susan Park, Katie McGuinness, Sam Otto, Sheila Vand, Mike O’Malley, Annalise Basso, Jaylin Fletcher, Lena Hall and Roberto Urbina. Steven Ogg, Rowan Blanchard and Sean Bean joined the main cast in the second season and both Chelsea Harris and Archie Panjabi joined the main cast in the third season.

While in development at TNT for over three years, the series faced numerous production issues and delays arising from creative differences between the series’ producers and the network. The series remained in development hell until May 2019, when it was announced that it would instead air on TNT’s sister network TBS in the second quarter of 2020 and that it had already been renewed for a second season. However, in September 2019, the decision to change networks was reversed.

Prior to studio shutdowns that occurred due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, most of the second season’s production was completed. The second season premiered on January 25, 2021. In January 2021, the series was renewed for a third season, which premiered on January 24, 2022. In July 2021, it was renewed for a fourth season. In June 2022, it was announced that the fourth season would be its last and intended to be the final scripted original series to air on TNT before the production of original programming was ceased. In January 2023, it was announced that the fourth season would not air on TNT and was in the process of moving elsewhere.

Snowpiercer Season 1

STORY

Episodes 01

“First, the Weather Changed”

In an attempt to reverse global warming, chemicals were released into Earth’s atmosphere to make the planet cooler. The plan backfires and freezes most of the inhabitable world. Seven years into the Freeze, the last remaining humans live onboard the train Snowpiercer, constructed by a mysterious Mr. Wilford with funding from a small group of elites and hundreds of ticket buyers. Some passengers have forced their way aboard the train without tickets, however. Called “Tailies”, they now live in the tail end of the train where constantly deteriorating conditions have prompted them to rebel several times. One Tailie named Andre Layton is called by Melanie Cavill, the public announcer or Voice of the Train, to help solve a murder because Layton used to be a homicide detective. Layton, while trying to negotiate better conditions for his class, is reunited with his ex-wife Zarah who is one of the suspects. After the suicide of a Tailie, the rest of the group revolt but are talked down by Layton who agrees to help solve the murder. He also plans to infiltrate the front of the train to recruit more allies and plan for the next rebellion. At the end of the day, Melanie takes over driving the train and is revealed to be acting in Mr. Wilford’s place.

Episodes 02

“Prepare to Brace”

Melanie opens up a cabinet and looks at an old picture of her holding a baby. As she goes on about her day, the train starts shaking because of rough tracks, triggering avalanches. One engineer recommends that throttling back the engine, but because it is also used to generate electricity, slowing down would cause rolling blackouts throughout the train. Melanie does not want to risk exacerbating the already tense situation. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Tailie rebellion are put into stasis, and Ruth oversees a little girl’s punishment for her involvement. However, her mother stands up and offers her own arm instead. The enforcers wet her arm and put it through a hole in the train’s car to the outside, where the temperature is minus 100 degrees. It freezes instantly and is then smashed by a hammer as punishment. In the Drawer car, Nikki is removed from stasis but has trouble waking up. With the help of Till, Layton begins investigating the latest murder, theorizing that the train’s butchers have been cannibalizing the dead and serving them as food to the passengers. As the train passes through a rough set of mountainous tracks, a massive avalanche hits it. Although Snowpiercer survives, the windows of the cattle car were shattered, freezing the last cows on Earth and some of the butchers. The damage and losses led to a series of supply chain shortages and rolling blackouts. Till suggests pinning the murder on the dead butchers, but Layton is convinced that the murder and the cannibalism are two separate crimes. At the same time, he continues to prepare for another rebellion and realizes that the murder victim was an informant for Mr. Wilford. Melanie and others who knew about Mr. Wilford’s absence become concerned about what the informant might have revealed under torture before he was killed.

Episodes 03

“Access Is Power”

As unrest grows, Melanie organizes a fight night as distraction with a promise to upgrade the winner to Second Class, but the fight turns into a riot that must be broken up. Layton learns that the murder victim, Sean, was investigating the black market drug Kronole, which has been present in the tail for some time. He discovers that the drug is a street variant of the suspension drug used to put people into stasis. It is supplied by the train’s doctor. With the help of Zarah, Layton arranges a meeting with Terrence, the head of janitorial and the black market, who descrbies to him a First Class passenger in close contact with Sean right before the murder. Layton later visits and kisses Josie, secretly passing her an implant that grants access to many parts of the train. The still-recovering Nikki is visited by a man matching Terence’s description of the killer.

Episodes 04

“Without Their Maker”

Nikki is murdered by the man who had visited her. He is now on the loose. With the border between different parts of the train closed due to the riot, he is trapped in Third Class. Layton tries to enlisting Third Class into his revolution while the killer is identified as Erik, the bodyguard for the Folger family. Layton fears that First Class will shield Erik from legal proceedings and punishment. Melanie, who is revealed to have also come from humble beginnings, appears willing to help Layton bring Erik to justice. As Layton investigates Erik’s connection to the Folger family, he realizes that LJ Folger is the true mastermind behind Erik’s actions. After a chase, Erik is killed by the Jackboots while LJ is arrested. At the same time, Josie uses the implant Layton gave her to sneak her way from the Tail forward and make contact with Astrid, a former Tailie, to ask her for help. Layton deduces Mr. Wilford’s absence during his interactions with First Class and Melanie. As a result, Melanie drugs him and has him secretly placed into stasis.

Episodes 05

“Justice Never Boarded”

Till moves to Second Class after she and Jinju marry. In the Drawers, Layton has nightmares about stopping the cannibal gangs that used to terrorize the Tail. LJ’s tribunal begins. Audrey successfully petitions Melanie to make the jury include a representative from the Third Class in addition to those from First and Second. The Folger family plots a mutiny against Mr. Wilford, but a loyal first class passenger warns Melanie. At the tribunal, LJ paints herself as a victim of Erik and hints that she has learned about secrets regarding the stasis Drawers from the murder victims. Though the jury unanimously finds LJ guilty, “Mr. Wilford” intervenes to commute her sentence. LJ promises Melanie that since Mr. Wilford has intervened to help her, she will keep the secrets she has learned. Meanwhile, Josie enlists the help of Terrence to search for Layton. Terrence abandons her after stealing drugs from Medical, but Josie finally locates Layton’s drawer. Till and Oz find Josie during their patrol, but at the last minute Till betrays Oz and helps Josie and Layton escape. The two seek out Zarah for help.

Episodes 06

“Trouble Comes Sideways”

A recovering Layton is taken to Dr. Pelton by Josie. Dr. Pelton reveals that there is a blacklist for the Drawers, people she believes to be enemies of the state targeted for imprisonment, a list which contains Layton, Josie and the doctor. A short-circuit damages Snowpiercer’s hydraulics and places the train in danger of derailing on a canyon bridge; Melanie manages to fix the problem just in time, saving the train from destruction. During these events, Layton confronts Melanie with the intention of killing her, but she reveals that the Drawers are not a prison, but a lifeboat for four hundred specially selected people in case order breaks down and stasis is the only chance of the human race surviving. Layton is forced to let Melanie go so she can save the train and he ends up having sex with Josie to whom he reveals the truth about Melanie. Oz blackmails Till into giving him free rein to abuse the passengers, but their near-death experience causes her to refuse to follow his demands further; after the death of Suzanne, the Tail sets up a projector to see the outside world. Melanie takes an interest in Miles’s developing skill as an engineer and states that Mr. Wilford needs a favor from him.

Episodes 07

“The Universe Is Indifferent”

Melanie promotes Miles to Engineer Apprentice to replace the man killed stopping the derailment and he is taken by Melanie to work in the Engine itself; when Josie makes contact with him, Miles promises to do his part in the upcoming rebellion. The Folgers and Commander Grey enlist Ruth in their own revolution; though Ruth tries to warn Melanie, Melanie brushes her off, causing Ruth to seemingly change her mind. Melanie embarks on a brutal campaign to find Layton, threatening Zarah into revealing that Josie helped Layton escape. Melanie brutally tortures Josie for information before she escapes her bonds with the help of a sympathetic Till; during the fight that follows, Josie freezes to death when outside air fills the room while Melanie escapes and is shown to be struggling with her ruthless actions. Layton reveals the truth about Melanie to the leaders of Third that Audrey trusts, although Terrence refuses to help either Layton or Melanie. After learning of Josie’s death from Till, Layton approaches LJ for help, offering to tell her the dirtiest secret on the train.

Episodes 08

“These Are His Revolutions”

Miles shows LJ the truth about Melanie; after LJ informs her parents, Ruth turns on Melanie and imprisons her to await execution. Miles and Bennett are forced to lock themselves in the engine while Javi joins the Folgers and Melanie admits to Ruth that she abandoned the real Mr. Wilford to die at boarding, believing that due to his selfish nature, the human race wouldn’t survive with him in charge. Layton’s revolution begins with Till and Henry Klimpt joining while Roche and the Brakemen, shaken by the truth, are convinced to stand down without a fight although Commander Grey and the Jackboots continue to oppose them. In the revolution, particularly a massive battle in the Nightcar, both sides suffer heavy losses, including Big John and Patterson, before being left at a stalemate. The Last Australian and Klimpt begin setting free the people from the Drawers, only to find Pike gone, having been freed by the Folgers. Pike states that due to Layton’s kind nature, with enough continuing pressure, his revolution will ultimately crumble.

Episodes 09

“The Train Demanded Blood”

First begins executing captured revolutionaries while offering Layton an ultimatum through Pike: surrender or they will kill everyone; after learning that Zarah is pregnant with his child, Layton agrees to take the deal. With the help of Jinju and Javi, who defects due to First’s ruthless tactics, Melanie escapes execution and offers Layton a plan to defeat the Folgers and their army of Jackboots by disconnecting part of the train at a switch track. With the plan requiring safety switches to be released on either side, Layton infiltrates the front of the train with the help of Roche and then escapes Grey’s custody with the help of the Last Australian and the revolutionaries rescued from the Drawers. However, Layton discovers that disconnecting the train will also sacrifice the people who have been captured; with no time to rescue them, Layton disables the safety, allowing Bennett and Miles to disconnect seven cars, sending the Folgers, aside from LJ, Grey, the Jackboots and the prisoners to their deaths. Melanie reveals that she knew that Layton would have to sacrifice the prisoners, stating that such hard choices are what they have to live with for every second of their existence.

Episodes 10

“994 Cars Long”

In the aftermath of the revolution, Melanie officially hands over control of Snowpiercer to Layton who plans to set up a democratic government. The Tailes go wild enjoying their new freedom while Pike takes over the Folgers’ compartment for a never-ending party and evicts the orphaned LJ who bonds with Oz. As Snowpiercer approaches Chicago, the Engine picks up a mysterious signal suggesting possible survivors; the signal turns out to come from Big Alice, a supply train running on a prototype of the Eternal Engine. Melanie fears the train is being run by Mr. Wilford; something that Bennett says they can’t be sure of. Big Alice clamps onto Snowpiercer and begins taking control of it while Bennett is revealed to have purposefully slowed the train in order to gain access to everything aboard Big Alice. Melanie heads outside to cut the uplink, but is thrown from the train when Big Alice brings it to a stop in the middle of Chicago. A young woman emerges from Big Alice to demand Snowpiercer’s surrender on Mr. Wilford’s behalf; to everyone’s shock, she identifies herself as Alexandra Cavill, Melanie’s believed-dead daughter.

CAST

Jennifer Connelly as Melanie Cavill: The powerful Head of Hospitality (the department responsible for smooth relations) and the Voice of the Train (responsible for making the PA system’s daily announcements) aboard Snowpiercer. To the majority of the train, Melanie is believed to be Mr. Wilford’s representative relaying his orders to the passengers and crew. It is later revealed that Wilford was not initially aboard the Snowpiercer. Melanie has been facing the crushing burden of directing Snowpiercer on its global journey, managing mounting resource and class issues, having her authority and decisions challenged and maintaining Wilford’s iron order throughout the train to preserve the last of humanity. She desperately tries to maintain the myth of Wilford, which is known to only a few other passengers. Ultimately the secret is exposed, leading to a coup attempt by wealthy passengers from First Class. This coincides with a revolution by the Tail and Third Class sections, in which Melanie helps out in the end and saves it from certain defeat. After the revolution, Melanie officially hands leadership of the train to Layton and resumes her duties as Head Engineer, but her plans to remain indefinitely in the engine room are threatened by the arrival of Mr. Wilford and the surprise return of her believed-dead daughter Alexandra. In the second season, Melanie departs Snowpiercer to find a place that humanity can recolonize. In the second season finale, Layton and Alex discover that Melanie had sacrificed the last of her power to protect her data before seemingly walking into the Freeze to die. In season three, Melanie appears as a hallucination to both Alex and Wilford. It’s eventually discovered that she had actually survived by taking a track scaler from a nearby hangar and using the suspension drug to keep herself in hibernation. After being rescued, she betrays Layton and seizes control of the Engine before agreeing to split the train, with Melanie leading those who want to stay onboard Snowpiercer.
Daveed Diggs as Andre Layton: A former detective turned leader of the Tail, a group of passengers who boarded Snowpiercer by force without tickets and are treated poorly as a result, often having their food, water, and electricity cut. As the world’s only surviving homicide detective, Layton is reluctantly deputized by Melanie as Snowpiercer‘s Train Detective to help solve a series of murders. While investigating the mysterious killings, he gathers intelligence and allies to support a revolution by the Tail and Third Class sections. After First Class has overthrown Melanie, they start to crush Layton’s revolution in a series of bloody confrontations. It is saved only after Melanie teams up with Layton in the end. After the revolution’s success, she officially hands the leadership of the train to Layton, but his plans to implement a democratic government are threatened by the arrival of Mr. Wilford. At the end of the second season, Layton creates his own pirate train out of the first ten cars of Snowpiercer in order to resist Wilford, taking with him several of his and Melanie’s most trusted loyalists. At the end of the third season, Layton takes Big Alice and a number of people to a habitable valley in the Horn of Africa.
Mickey Sumner as Bess Till: A Brakeman and part of the train’s security force, Till was a rookie officer in the Detroit Police Department and witnessed its self-destruction during the Freeze. She is in a romantic relationship with Jinju and later upgrades from Third to Second Class to be with her. Tormented by the injustices of the class system, however, she ultimately decides to support Layton’s revolution. Because Till is afraid to share what she knows about Layton’s moves, while Jinju still wants to keep her knowledge about First Class and Melanie secret, they eventually break up. After Josie, one of Layton’s allies, finds him in medically induced suspension, Till helps Josie and Layton escape. She also tries but fails to save Josie from interrogation by Melanie. In season 2, Layton promotes Till to Train Detective in order to solve a series of crimes involving members of the Tail and the Breachmen. It is later revealed that Mr. Wilford was behind them as a way to undermine Layton’s credibility and leadership. Till leaves with Layton’s pirate train at the end of season 2. After the trains reconnect in season 3, she resumes her role as Train Detective, investigating Pike’s attempts to assassinate Layton and forming a romantic relationship with Miss Audrey, who has been Mr. Wilford’s love interest. After Big Alice separates from Snowpiercer to embark on its journey to New Eden, Till becomes the new Lead Brakemen aboard Snowpiercer.
Alison Wright as Ruth Wardell: Melanie’s deputy in Hospitality who looks after First Class passengers and delivers demands and punishments to the Tail. Before the Freeze, she ran a bed and breakfast in Kendal and was personally recruited by Mr. Wilford when he stayed there as a guest. A friend to Melanie, Ruth feels betrayed after the secret about Mr. Wilford was exposed. She becomes Head of Hospitality and is initially thrilled by Mr. Wilford’s return. When questioned by Layton, she insists that her loyalty is to Snowpiercer and its passengers. She subsequently joins Layton’s leadership council with Miss Audrey, Roche, Bennett Knox, and others but he is reluctant to trust her. Ruth is inadvertently left behind with Wilford after Layton creates a separate pirate train. In season 3, she becomes the leader of a resistance movement against Wilford on Snowpiercer before resuming her duties as Head of Hospitality after Layton’s return. She later chooses to join him in going to New Eden.
Lena Hall as Miss Audrey: Chanteuse and the lead madam of Snowpiercer‘s Nightcar, a Third Class den of (mostly) platonic prostitution and spiritual healing. She represents Third Class before the rest of the train and is very vocal about addressing the social differences on Snowpiercer and supports Layton’s revolution. In season 2, she struggles with the return of Mr. Wilford; she was once an escort who served Wilford personally for years and still feels drawn to him despite fearing that renewing their relationship would make her life worse. It is later revealed that the two have a sadomasochistic relationship with Miss Audrey being the dominant party. She later defects to Wilford’s side, helping him against rival factions. When Layton creates a separate pirate train, she is taken hostage by his crew in order to ensure the safety of Zarah, who was pregnant and stayed behind on Wilford’s part of the train. After Snowpiercer was reconnected, Audrey is exiled to Third Class and banned from the Nightcar. She eventually forms a romantic relationship with Till who helps her move past Wilford and begin helping people again.
Iddo Goldberg as Bennett Knox: One of Snowpiercer‘s engineers, he has inside knowledge of the initial absence of Mr. Wilford onboard and knows the deepest secrets of the train. He is fiercely loyal to Melanie, with whom he is romantically involved. When Mr. Wilford returns, he betrays Melanie as he believes that Snowpiercer would not survive without the supplies onboard Wilford’s Big Alice. At the same time, he forges an alliance with Layton to protect the train together in Melanie’s absence. He subsequently acts as part of Layton’s leadership council. Bennett was in on Melanie’s plot to steal Snowpiercer in the first place unlike his colleague Javi, another train engineer, and stressed that they had to depart the station before Wilford boards the train and more people get killed, even though Melanie’s daughter had not arrived yet and would miss the train if it leaves. In season two, Bennett joins Layton’s pirate train. At the end of season three, Bennett chooses to remain on Snowpiercer with Melanie rather than going to New Eden.
Susan Park as Jinju Seong (season 1): Snowpiercer‘s agricultural officer from Second Class and a member of the train’s elite. She has been in a romantic relationship with Bess and has inside knowledge of Mr. Wilford’s initial absence. After the revolution, she and Bess break up.
Katie McGuinness as Josie Wellstead: A strong, no-nonsense Tailie, she cares for Miles and other children in the tail, and uses training from her time as a veterinarian before the Freeze to treat the sick or injured. She is Andre’s love interest after Zarah’s departure from the tail. She has been part of the uprisings in the tail and takes great risks on the behalf of her community. She is later thought to have been frozen to death after trying to kill Melanie who tortured her. In the second season, it is revealed that she has actually survived, albeit severely injured. Receiving treatment from the Headwoods, Wilford’s scientists on Big Alice, Josie becomes resistant to extremely cold temperature like Icy Bob and receives a new prosthetic hand. She later uses her new ability to help Layton escape and joins him and others on the pirate train. In the third season, Josie has a brief fling with Bennett Knox. When the time comes to reconnect the pirate train with the rest of Snowpiercer and Big Alice, she uses her new ability to help Layton again. She later decides to join others in going to New Eden.
Sam Otto as John “Oz” Osweiller: A young Brakeman and Bess’s patrol partner as part of the train’s security team. He is less scrupulous than Bess in dealing with the passengers. Oz was raised by a single mother who was a prostitute and emotionally distant from him. He references being in pain from “everything”, which is also his rationale for taking Kronole, a street drug likely derived from the medication used for the suspension of life. During Layton’s revolution, Oz abandons his job with the Brakemen. He begins a relationship with LJ and becomes the head of janitorial after the assassination of Terence. In season three, during Audrey’s absence, he and LJ run the Night Car together as a bar and eventually get married. However, LJ remains deeply committed to her own machinations in order to rise to the top again, one time even threatening Oz when he appears reluctant to support her. Oz later leaves LJ to join the colonization of New Eden.
Sheila Vand as Zarah Fahrami: Layton’s ex-wife who, unable to adjust to the poverty of the Tail, left to become a bartender in the Nightcar, antagonizing other Tailies and breaking Layton’s heart in the process. She later becomes pregnant with Layton’s child. After the revolution, she tries to build a new life with him. In the second season, she joins Hospitality in an effort to bridge the gap between Layton and Ruth Wardell. When Layton creates a separate pirate train, Zarah decides to remain behind, feeling that she is safer there and that Wilford would not dare to hurt her due to her pregnancy. She allows Wilford’s scientists to perform an experimental procedure and augment her baby with resistance to extremely low temperature. In season three, she gives birth to Liana Layton.
Roberto Urbina as Javier “Javi” de la Torre: One of Snowpiercer‘s engineers, he is aware of Mr. Wilford’s initial absence from the train and often questions the morality of Melanie’s decisions. In addition to keeping the train running, Javi uses computer algorithms and hacked satellites to predict the environment surrounding and ahead of Snowpiercer. During the coup by First Class, Javi sides with the Folgers at first but eventually betrays them and rescues Melanie. Following the aborted coup and the successful Tailie revolution, Javi, Bennett, and Melanie try but fail to prevent Mr. Wilford from taking over Snowpiercer. After Wilford joins his Big Alice with Snowpiercer and takes control of both trains, Melanie departs on a mission to collect atmospheric data and model the re-warming of Earth. During a struggle to brake the trains in time to pick up Melanie as she returns, Javi is mauled by Wilford’s dog, Jupiter, and Wilford is able to prevent the trains from stopping. Javi survives but is left traumatized and under Wilford’s control. Throughout the third season, Javi battles post-traumatic stress disorder with the help of Sykes. He later joins Layton in going to New Eden.
Mike O’Malley as Sam Roche: Snowpiercer‘s lead Brakeman who is a former police officer and Wilford’s security officer before the Freeze. As the train’s chief law enforcement officer, he tried to maintain the train’s order, but ended up respecting and allying with Layton, and ultimately decides to support Layton’s revolution. He and his wife, Anne, and one of his three children survived the Freeze. In season 2, he works with Layton and his former subordinate Bess Till to maintain order in the wake of Wilford’s return. He is one of Layton’s leadership council alongside Ruth Wardell, Miss Audrey and Bennett Knox following Melanie’s departure from the train. Near the end of season 2, he is placed in the Drawers on Big Alice along with his family. After Layton’s return in season 3, he is rescued by Till and Dr. Pelton, but they discover that Anne had died at some point during their time in the Drawers. Roche subsequently struggles to deal with his grief and anger over Anne’s death. Roche and his daughter choose to join the people going to New Eden at the end of the season.
Annalise Basso as Lilah Jr. “LJ” Folger-Osweiller (season 1–3): The isolated teenage daughter of Lilah and Robert, she lives uptrain with her parents in First Class, surrounded by luxury. Appearing to be quiet and diligent, she is later revealed as a murderous psychopath and sadist, and the mastermind behind the serial murders on Snowpiercer committed by her bodyguard and boyfriend Erik Sotto. She is exposed by Layton, arrested and found guilty in a tribunal, but her acquittal on Melanie’s order makes her one of the most hated First Class train passengers. Following the death of both of her parents in the revolution, the orphaned and defenseless LJ is evicted from First Class by Pike, and is now surviving in Third Class with Oz, both of them hated by the train’s passengers. LJ reluctantly takes on a janitorial job and bonds with Alex Cavill. She eventually starts dating Oz. In season 3, she and Oz run the Night Car together and continue their relationship. In “The Last to Go,” the two get married. In “The Original Sinners,” after Oz leaves her for New Eden, LJ accidentally chokes to death on her father’s glass eye.
Jaylin Fletcher as Miles (season 1; recurring season 2–present): A Tailie child, whose parents and sister were left behind to die in the Freeze when their refugee group invaded the train, leaving him to be raised primarily by Andre and Josie – the rest of the Tail refer to him as “Miles and Miles” (implying no one is aware of his surname). Whip smart and talented, his brilliant intelligence wins him a coveted apprenticeship that allows him to move up the train to Second Class. He is later fast-track appointed an Engine Apprentice by Melanie. He plays a pivotal role in the revolution, revealing the truth about Melanie’s deception to LJ Folger and working with Bennett, Melanie and Layton to kill the Folgers and their army by detaching seven cars from the train. In season 2, Miles is revealed to be working on engineering life systems and dreams of being one of the first people to recolonize the planet. In season 3, he visits with Josie, is revealed to have continued his apprenticeship and suggests the solution for settling the dispute between Layton and Pike. When the trains separate, Miles remains with Snowpiercer to continue training as an Engineer with Melanie and Bennett, resuming working in the Engine with them in the absence of Javi. Gabriel Jacob-Cross plays Young Miles.
Steven Ogg as Pike (seasons 2–3; recurring season 1): A Tailie, who was a career convict, serving time in Cook County Jail for armed robbery at the time of the Freeze, but escaped. He is respected as a hardened and battle-scarred leader in the Tail, and a warrior of his people, though he often acts as a renegade, out for whatever he can get and has shifting loyalties. In season 2, he starts an illicit trade between the two trains which Layton agrees to allow under his supervision. After assassinating Terence on Layton’s orders, Pike suffers something of a breakdown out of guilt. In season 3, he assists Ruth Wardell in running the resistance on Snowpiercer in Layton’s absence. After attempting to assassinate Layton, Pike is stabbed to death by him in a fight to the death in “Born to Bleed.” He subsequently reappears as a priest in Layton’s coma dream in “Ouroboros.”
Rowan Blanchard as Alexandra “Alex” Cavill (season 2–present; guest season 1): Melanie’s daughter and Big Alice‘s Engineer, who was believed to have died in the Freeze when her mother was forced to leave her behind when Snowpiercer left Chicago seven years ago. In the season 1 finale, Alex returns aboard Big Alice. She spent seven years on Big Alice as Wilford’s dedicated protégée. Wilford had also manipulated her into hating Melanie, her mother, by convincing her that Melanie “stole” the train and left her behind. Upon their reunification, Alex and her mother slowly began to rekindle their relationship. Alex also starts becoming friendly with LJ Folger despite their differing loyalties. Alex eventually abandons Wilford and joins Layton’s pirate train. After reuniting with her mother in season 3, she decides to join Layton in going to New Eden rather than remaining on Snowpiercer with Melanie.
Sean Bean as Joseph Wilford (season 2–present; uncredited season 1): An eccentric billionaire and genius inventor, Mr. Wilford is the powerful creator of Snowpiercer, worshipped as a Messiah-like figure who used his company, Wilford Industries, to refit his luxury liner train, “Wilford’s Dreamliner” and its global railway into an ark, Snowpiercer, to save a small population from the Freeze (though in truth Melanie performed the engineering work to do so, and he claimed the credit). Initially believed to be the mysterious and reclusive Head Engineer of the train represented solely by Melanie, it is later revealed that he was not actually aboard Snowpiercer, with Melanie only maintaining the illusion that he was. After the secret was revealed, wealthy passengers from First Class attempted a coup, and the Tail and Third Class began a revolution. In the season 1 finale, after the revolution, Wilford returns in control of a secondary supply train, Big Alice, and docks with Snowpiercer. With his new technology and a master plan, Wilford intends to resume command of both trains and reunite with Audrey, who was his personal escort before the Freeze.
Chelsea Harris as Sykes (season 3; recurring season 2): Mr. Wilford’s head of security aboard Big Alice, Sykes keeps her secrets and is loyal to Wilford. At the end of the second season, Sykes is captured by Bennett Knox and remains a prisoner onboard Layton’s pirate train. In season 3, she has joined the crew, stating that she is doing her part as a prisoner of war. However, her loyalty to Wilford appears to be wavering and she is left to roam free by Layton after he retakes Snowpiercer. She later bonds with Javi over their mutual trauma from dealing with Wilford, revealing that her scars also come from an attack by Wilford’s dog Jupiter. When the trains separate, Sykes joins Layton in going to New Eden.
Archie Panjabi as Asha (season 3) A survivor discovered by Layton in a nuclear power plant in North Korea. In “Born to Bleed,” Asha tells Pike that she’s Indian and had lived in England. In “Setting Itself Right,” she sacrifices herself to save Snowpiercer from a cloud of toxic volcanic gas.