Evil star Aasif Mandvi hopes season 4 will explore Ben’s backstory further. Mandvi plays Ben Shakir in the Paramount+ supernatural drama, a contractor working with forensic psychologist Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) and Catholic priest David Acosta (Mike Colter) to investigate potentially supernatural cases. Ben tends to act as Devil’s advocate between the two, often turning to scientific reasoning for cases that might otherwise be unexplainable. But in his own life, Ben is an atheist. Though he was raised as a Muslim, he broke off from his family’s teachings as he grew older.
It’s a complicated backstory that the series has delved into during previous episodes. At moments, Ben seems close to believing. At others, he confesses that he appreciates the feelings and traditions of the faith even if he can’t quite get there himself. It’s rich territory, especially considering how Ben frequently comes across situations and circumstances that he can’t easily reason away. But there are still parts of Ben’s life that are only hinted at, explored for perhaps an episode or two before being dropped, such as his relationship with his mother, and Mandvi discusses these in new remarks.
As part of an interview with ScreenRant at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, Mandvi revealed that he would like the already-confirmed Evil season 4 to do a deeper dive into Ben’s history. The actor mentioned how the show would, at times, set things up about Ben’s background without offering an in-depth exploration. More specifically, Mandvi discussed how Ben could help to push forward Evil‘s Entity storyline and its parallels to the pharmaceutical industry. Mandvi’s quote is included below.
“There’s a lot of stuff in Ben’s background that has been set up and hasn’t been explored. But I was thinking about this: Mike’s been dealing with this thing, the Entity… There’s a real parallel between the Entity of the Catholic Church, which is doing these nefarious things in the name of good, and where Ben came from. [In] the pharmaceutical world, there’s a lot of the same kind of things going on.”
Mandvi touches on a complaint that fans of Evil have increasingly expressed. Kristen, David, and Ben tend to converge for the case-of-week. But, otherwise, the trio is often off in their own corners and the separate storylines only sometimes connect. By combining Kristen’s medical storyline with David’s Entity conspiracies, and bringing Ben more into the fold, Evil would be shining more of a spotlight on the considerable chemistry between its three leads. It could potentially offer some sense of resolution to long-dangling narratives as well.
The show, created by Robert and Michelle King, does deserve credit for the fact that Ben is a rare portrayal in media – a secular Muslim that, for better or worse, isn’t defined by his connection to the faith. Ben has plenty of characteristics besides his religious upbringing, and he’s occasionally portrayed hilariously by the former Daily Show correspondent Mandvi. Perhaps, after Evil season 3 closes up, there will be more space devoted to Ben and his sweet sibling relationship with Karima (Sohina Sidhu). Their dynamic, with her as the believer and him as the ardent skeptic, could be a streaming series all its own.