MacGyver’s Lucas Till previews action (and changes!) ahead in season 4

MacGyver star Lucas Till tells Precinct TV about what fans can expect when MacGyver season 4 premieres, including one big addition to the CBS show.

MacGyver returns to CBS tomorrow, and there will be plenty of fireworks—both literal and maybe metaphorical—when the season premieres.

Precinct TV connected with Lucas Till ahead of the MacGyver season 4 premiere to talk about the new season, the addition of new cast member Henry Ian Cusick (Lost, Scandal), and if he’s picked up anything from playing TV’s most creative crime-fighter.

Learn more in our interview below, then don’t miss the season premiere at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday on CBS.

Precinct TV: MacGyver is such an iconic role, and you’re now in your fourth season playing him. What does it mean to you that the show is still going strong and people have embraced you as this beloved character?

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Lucas Till: It’s pretty rad. I think the lucky thing I had going for me was the show was really about the guy who played him, not so much the show. In my case, as long as you’re MacGyver-ing stuff, as long as you’re half-charming and having a good time, they’ll accept you.

That’s pretty much the way it seems to me; maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit. But it’s really nice to be accepted, because it doesn’t always go that way.

PTV: At this point, do you feel like you could MacGyver something? Do you find yourself looking at things the way he does?

LT: Absolutely. I do think that way, but I always probably did. My dad really is MacGyver, and we’ve called him that since we were young. He can literally fix anything; my uncle can too. I definitely got that from my dad [and] I love problem-solving. I love challenges. I love grabbing stuff from people and fixing it for them. So it’s like I am the character. (laughs)

PTV: When last we saw Mac at the end of season 3, he had a lot of baggage surrounding what he’d learned about his father. Does MacGyver season 4 continue that, or has he had time to put last season behind him?

LT: There are some drastic changes to Mac’s life. If you’re worried about drastic changes to the show, you’re not going to be disappointed; it’s not like that. We have a [time] jump, and things have changed a little bit. It’s sort of getting the team back together. We come back in a new way and it’s really interesting. I love what we’ve done this year.

PTV: You have Henry Ian Cusick joining the MacGyver cast as your newest regular. What do he and his character Russ bring to the show?

LT: He is such a welcome addition, not only on-screen but off-screen. That always makes it easier when you’re working with people, especially when you work eleven movies a year—22 episodes. You need that. And I think it pays off on-screen. He’s great comedically and dramatically.

[Russ] is the owner of Spearhead Operations, which is kind of like Blackwater. This guy is kind of shady, but maybe we can help bring him to the good side. He’s coming in to give us some new purpose. That’s all I can say.

PTV: These characters have seen a lot of changes over the past three seasons. How would you say the show has evolved as we go into MacGyver season 4?

LT: There is so much more maturity in some ways in the show. It’s more serial. It’s still a procedural, so it still stands alone, but they actually do have a storyline that goes throughout the first 13 episodes. It’s pretty awesome and I think that’s something new that people are going to like, because we have a really, really huge big bad guy storyline coming in. It gets really dark toward the end of the 13.

That’ll be about halfway through the season, and then we’ll go back to old-fashioned stuff, maybe. But it’s really interesting. We have such amazing actors, and we had great directors coming in with us, and we just knocked it out of the park.

The writing just went to the next level—the humor is better, the drama is better, the stakes are higher. When we got the whole season order, I felt like we’re getting the respect that we deserve, because we work so hard. Every single person, all of my crew and all my cast, some people working six-day weeks. It’s a lot…I think this season is going to blow people away.

MacGyver returns this Friday, Feb. 7; new episodes will air Fridays at 8:00 p.m. on CBS.