‘Manifest’ Season 4: Ty Doran Teases Role as Older Cal, ‘So Many Daddy Issues’
Cal Stone had a complicated day in the Manifest Season 3 finale. His mother was murdered, his sister was kidnapped, and he suddenly aged five years. So, it’s understandable that Cal will seem a bit different when Manifest Season 4 Part 1 arrives on Netflix next month. Older Cal’s actor, Ty Doran, appeared with the rest of the cast at New York Comic Con on Oct. 8, where he teased his role in the upcoming episodes.
Why is Cal different in ‘Manifest’ Season 4?
For the last three seasons of Manifest, Jack Messina has played Cal Stone, the youngest member of the Stone family and a messenger in the Flight 828 mystery. However, Doran briefly took over Messina’s role in the season 3 finale, and he’ll return in season 4.
As fans may recall, Cal touched Flight 828’s tailfin and disappeared to an unknown realm. When Ben Stone (Josh Dallas) and Saanvi Bahl (Parveen Kaur) returned the tailfin to the ocean, Cal reappeared — five years older. He returned to the age that he would have been if the plane never vanished. His age has finally caught up to his twin sister, Olive (Luna Blaise). However, he lost the chance to live through those five years, and his family has no idea where he went. Figuring that out will be a big part of season 4.
“As Ben, Michaela, Saanvi, everyone continues to try to put the pieces together, they’re going to try to decipher whether it’s possible to access that place if this is purgatory, some unknown destination that no one knows about,” Manifest creator Jeff Rake told TV Insider last year. “They’ll be poring through the Bible, they’ll be poring through the Noah’s Ark myth, and other biblical stories to try to understand exactly how to access this place, wherever it is, how one gets in and how one gets out, and that’ll be part and parcel of how they try to save themselves.”
Ty Doran says Cal is ‘angsty’ in ‘Manifest’ Season 4
So, what does life as older Cal look like? During New York Comic Con, Doran told Entertainment Weekly that his character is physically older, but he hasn’t “matured” mentally.
“He’s in this older body but has not matured to the level that would be apropos of his stature now, I guess,” Doran admitted. “So it has been weird to … He’s like a little kid.”
However, there’s one thing Cal does have to match a typical 17-year-old: teen angst.
“He’s so angsty, he’s got so many daddy issues, and he wants to help so bad. It’s been interesting… Where he begins and where he ends are two very different places, and I think he really grows up over the course of this season,” the actor added.
Cal has a rough time at the start of the season
Manifest Season 4 picks up with a two-year time jump, and fans will learn that things haven’t been easy for the Stone family. In addition to grieving after baby Eden’s kidnapping and his mother’s death, Cal must deal with his father blaming him for what happened to Grace (Athena Karkanis). Plus, as Doran mentioned at NYCC, the teen has lived in hiding due to his sudden aging.
“He’s going through a lot at the start [of the season],” Doran said, per Netflix’s Tudum. “He can’t go outside or be himself because, what a crazy thing that would be for Cal to have aged up those five years. So his whole life is a secret. He just wants to help so badly and can’t figure out how to put the pieces together.”
Manifest Season 4 Part 1 drops on Netflix on Nov. 4.
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