There’s no show on TV that knows how to hit a reset button quite like Syfy’s The Magicians. The season 3 finale left so many intriguing loose threads that it would take a full costume department working overtime just to tie everything up. Luckily, The Magicians Season 4 starts to answer questions like what’s going on with the authoritarian rule of The Library, and how Quentin will handle his complicated relationship with both magic and Fillory.

It’s not just Quentin who finds himself in a drastically different place to begin the season. The whole gang had their memories wiped in the season 3 finale and were placed back into the world in new, magic-less lives. At this point, Arjun Gupta is used to playing all different variations of Penny. When the new batch of episodes premieres on Wednesday, January 23rd, he’ll be introduced as the globetrotting DJ Hansel, a character far removed from everyone’s favorite traveler. Stella Maeve also finds himself in a new place, albeit a tricker one for Julia. She’s essentially indestructible yet has no magic abilities and is on a mission to find her purpose. We sat down with Gupta and Maeve to discuss their character arcs in the upcoming season.

Can you tell us about the new character that you’re embodying at the beginning of the new season? What way is he like Penny, what way is he not like Penny? Was it challenging to step into a new role?

Arjun Gupta: I actually felt like it was liberating for me. I think I was unique in the situation where my character, my glamour character was completely different from Penny. I mean he’s DJ Hansel, he’s the dude that went to India for two weeks and came back enlightened, and wants everybody to know how enlightened he is. Always wears clothes from Thailand even though he went there once. That kind of person whose very ungrounded, very loose and free, very free in his body which is different from Penny. Actually it was really fun. It was incredibly exciting.