Rules of The Innocents' Shapeshifting Mythology

Netflix’s The Innocents focuses on British teen June (Sorcha Groundsell) and her secret boyfriend Harry (Percelle Ascott), who try to run away together on her 16th birthday, when they find out she has the strange power to shapeshift.

So how exactly does this shifting work? TV Guide sat down with producers to get the lowdown on the rules: (SPOILER ALERT – read at your own risk!)

- Shifters are female only (though they can shift into males).

- Shifting has an “emotional trigger.” “So one shifter’s trigger might be anger, one’s might be love, one’s might be fear,” creator and EP Hania Elkington explained. “And the way that that trigger is determined is what emotion is it that makes you shift for the first time.”

- Shifting starts at age 16.

- Shifts can only be sparked by human contact. When the shifter is in someone else’s form, the other person is basically in a coma until the shifter goes back to their own body.

- “Be careful what you’re wearing, ’cause you’re gonna be wearing those clothes afterwards,” creator and EP Simon Duric shared.

- The shifting gene usually skips generations, but there are exceptions. If a shifter inherits the gene from their mother, they gain enhanced abilities.

- Mirrors show a shifter’s true identity.

(MAJOR SPOILER ALERT below!)

Click inside to read the final rule…

- A shifter should return to their body before doing another shift. If they skip this step, “it puts every person they shifted into, except for the last person they touched, into a catatonic state.”