Watch: we asked the cast of Syfy’s 12 Monkeys about 12 famous monkeys

On Monday night, Syfy debuted the second season of its promising time travel drama 12 Monkeys. Season two is set to take fans of the series by surprise, but I also found it to be welcoming for new viewers — the premiere was especially accessible for 12 Monkeys neophytes.

And there are plenty of heavy, hairy questions surrounding what’s ahead in season two: What happens to Cassie (Amanda Schull) in the future? How are Cole (Aaron Stanford) and Ramse (Kirk Acevedo) changing the future? Are they even protecting anything or just making a mess?

We recently talked to the cast of 12 Monkeys to find out what to expect. But the question we most wanted to ask was about, well, 12 famous monkeys (and apes) from pop culture. Was Curious George over- or underrated? Was the Nazi monkey from Indiana Jones the most dastardly primate in movie history?

Last week, we got our wish.

For the record, the Ikea monkey elicited the most spirited responses, while Marcel from Friends and the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz seemed to rank much lower among the cast. Watch the video above to hear their detailed opinions on those monkeys and many more.

We eventually did talk about the show’s second season, too. My colleague Todd VanDerWerff reviewed the season two premiere, and said he respected what the show is doing in building out its own world and characters.

“Though 12 Monkeys is deeply silly, with the sort of goofy, time-stream-altering shenanigans you’d expect from a time travel show, it’s also haunted and sad, riven with grief, as befits a show set in part after an apocalyptic plague wipes the world of billions of its inhabitants,” he wrote.

I asked the cast to tease what’s ahead, and here’s what they had to say: