Shadowhunters type TV Show network Freeform

When Shadowhunters returns for its second season, things are getting darker. Literally. For new showrunners Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, one of the things they wanted to change about the show was the physical look of it.

“There were a lot of cool things that perhaps could be cooler, visual-effect wise, the look of the show,” Slavkin tells EW. “We took the rooms and we darkened them.”

And yet, that isn’t the only change the new showrunners made. “We’re character guys,” Slavkin says. “We wrote Smallville for many years and the thrill of that for us was the character and the growth and the relationships between the people. If anything, in season 2, we’re leaning more into that. Of course there’s missions and of course there’s hunting, but the yearning, the longing, the triangles, the relationships is what really turns us on.”

EW has an exclusive first look at the new season — darker look and all — above.

Shadowhunters returns on Monday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. on Freeform.