Janina Gavankar discusses Ichabod’s new partner, Diana in ‘Sleepy Hollow’ season 4

Some fans are viewing the fourth season of Sleepy Hollow as a reboot of sorts with Tom Mison’s Ichabod Crane moving to Washington D.C. and finding a new “partner” after the death of fellow Witness Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie). The role of “new partner” comes in the form of Diana, played by Janina Gavankar and actress spoke about role with TV Line, beginning with the fan outrage at Abbie’s death.

“I’m not an idiot,” the True Blood alum told TVLine . “I’m totally nervous that people are going to hate me. But someone had to take the job, and I was so honored that [Sleepy] called me in the first place. I wasn’t going to say no.”

Diana is a Homeland Security Agent assisting Ichabod, but skeptical of the supernatural as he moves to DC to work for the government’s secret supernatural fighting organization.

Tom Mison and Janina Gavankar

“When she at first finds out that maybe her mission is a little bigger than she expected, she naturally girds for what that means — not only to her, but the rest of her family and the people she works with — and immediately finds a side of her, a calling that she wasn’t prepared for,” showrunner Clifton Campbell says of Janina’s Diana being a denier of this new world.

“But once it happens, she is more than willing to throw down and join the fight,” he continued.

Sleepy Hollow will be hard pressed to appease fans upset over the end to season 3.

“There is only a very brief time leap [between the two seasons,]” Mison explained. “Ichabod and Jenny (Lyndie Greenwood) go off in different directions because there are two missions — there is the mission to find the new witness and then there is the mission to find the secret organization that Washington set up. So, Jenny goes to explore around the world… finding as much as she can about the new witness and Ichabod is finding the group and then we reunite in the first episode and then are a very, very strong team.”

Others joining in the new season are Alex Norwood (Rachel Melvin) as well as Jake Wells (Jerry MacKinnon) as allies, as well as a tech mogul named Malcolm Dreyfuss (Jeremy Davies). John Noble is also rumored to return as Ichabod’s late son Jeremy.

Sleepy Hollow Season 4 airs Fridays at 9 p.m. EST on Fox.