SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for the first season of Black Doves, now streaming on Netflix.

Keira Knightley may be aiming for Mariah Carey’s crown as Christmas queen with her latest project, Black Doves, which dropped on Netflix this week. The London-set spy thriller begins with a jolly Santa singing in a pub and ends six episodes later on Christmas Day, cementing the actor’s repertoire of Christmas projects that includes Love Actually, Silent Night and The Nutcracker. belong to the Four Kingdoms.”

In “Black Doves,” Knightley plays Helen, a politician’s wife and secret spy who works for a shady corporate organization called Black Doves. But when Helen’s lover Jason (played by Andrew Koji) dies, she finds herself caught up in a complicated geopolitical web that not only threatens to turn her own life upside down, but also threatens to trigger World War III. The series also stars Ben Whishaw as Helen’s best friend and fellow spy Sam, Sarah Lancashire as Black Doves boss Mrs. Reed and Omari Douglas as Sam’s ex-boyfriend Michael.

Before the premiere of Black Doves, showrunner Joe Barton met with him diversity to break down the exciting season finale, what to expect from Season 2, and whether the series will stick to a Christmas release.

Where did the idea for “Black Doves” come from?

I just love things that take place at Christmas. I’m a big fan of Christmas movies and also a big fan of Christmas TV. I love it when series only have one Christmas episode. “ER” always had a good one. “The West Wing” always had a good one. I always wanted to do it, but it was actually difficult. So the first script I wrote in the week in between – I started on Boxing Day and finished on New Year’s Day – was pretty immersed in Christmas. Then of course time goes by and I remember around April or so we were sitting with Chris Fry, one of the producers, and we were both like, “What are you doing for Christmas?” It slips out of your head so quickly, that you completely forget about it.

There’s a scene where Eleanor (Gabrielle Creevy) and Kai-Ming (Isabella Wei) are tied up and talking about their favorite Christmas movies. Have you considered referencing Love Actually?

Yes, I obviously 100% did. But I thought that was too meta. But I have a real soft spot for Love Actually.

How early did Keira come on board?

She was there literally from day one, so I wrote for her from that point on. I think she’s always fit the character perfectly… It feels like a bit of a departure for her, but I think she’s really good at playing characters that are limited by the public perception of what they should be, even if it’s like Elizabeth Bennet (in “Pride & Prejudice”) or her character in “Pirates of the Caribbean” or “Atonement.” These characters are trapped in the public eye, but underneath the surface is this inner turmoil, which is basically Helen too, but obviously in a more contemporary setting and with other genre elements on top of it, action and stuff like that.

The moment Sam reappears in Helen’s life, killing an assassin and leaving blood on her face is pretty powerful. Did this scene turn out the way you imagined it?

That moment was about bringing Sam and Helen back together and trying to do it in a fun, shocking way. He comes in and saves her, and it’s like fireworks – this guy who’s her best friend, who she hasn’t seen in years, has just returned, and it’s a literally explosive moment. But it was strange because it’s like the most violent moment in the series and we’ve had a lot of conversations about it because there’s more violence later on, but nothing is as gory as that. And so we asked ourselves: Does it match the rest? But we kept it just because it was such a compelling image – Keira Knightley full of brains. And later there is another one in which she is heavily pregnant, shoots a man and is splattered with blood again. But this moment was also the whole show: private life, spy life, motherhood, murder. You have everything in one picture. The first time she really got cummed on, I didn’t think it would be so much.

In the season finale, why does Helen hesitate when deciding whether to kill Trent, and why is Sam ultimately the one who fires the gun?

It was about who she really is and whether she will do this. The moral question was whether or not this young man should be killed. Obviously a big part of Sam’s backstory is that he refused to kill a child younger than this guy, but still, they’re both young and it’s about who is Helen? What is she actually ready for and how high is the emotional burden as a result? Then of course Sam steps in and does it for her and takes on the emotional burden of killing this young man and also the external threat that he is the one who does it, he will have to face the consequences. In episode 3 you see that Helen almost wants to escape when she’s pregnant, she’s about to leave the Black Doves, but then she gets pulled back in because she shows up in that staircase scene to save Sam and get Michael there out. Therefore, he feels a real debt to her. And again, it’s all about their friendship and the sacrifices they’re willing to make for each other.

Do you think Jason really loved Helen? Mrs. Reed’s revelation that he lied about her to MI5 suggests that he did.

Yes, I do. I think in the same way that Helen’s relationship with Wallace kind of changed, I feel like Jason, he investigated her, but I think he really fell in love with her, and she did. So I think that relationship was real. He actually lied and got her out of trouble. And before he’s killed, she’s the one he calls. I think those feelings are really real and if he hadn’t been killed he might have come clean and told her he was investigating her.

How far along are you with writing season two and where will it go – will we find out more about her backstory?

We are still at the beginning of the process. I’m still writing the first episode and we’re kind of feeling our way through it. We shot some flashbacks of young Helen, her stepfather and her sister Bonnie, which didn’t make it into the final cut. I think it would be really interesting to find out more about it. I think it’s very interesting to learn more about the characters and Sarah’s character in the second season. We know quite a bit about Sam, but there’s always more. And just the opportunity to expand the scope a little bit, but that’s all unclear at the moment.

Will it play again at Christmas?

It’s just a matter of when it will be released. It doesn’t have to be restricted by the Christmas holidays. So it could be that there is another (holiday) – Easter perhaps?

I don’t think it necessarily always has to be Christmas, which I’m pretty sad about because I love writing things that are set at Christmas. Part of me would say, “Yeah, we always do that at Christmas!” But it also drove everyone a little crazy to be stuck in a constant state of Christmas for six or seven months. Then on average, I mean, we heard “Good King Wenceslas” in July. And I don’t know if you want to do that to people again.

This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity.