'Shadowhunters' season 2 air date news: Freeform releases new opening titles; hunt for Jace intensifies with shoot-to-kill order

The new opening titles for Freeform's popular fantasy series "Shadowhunters" has been released and thus serves as an unmistakable reminder that the second season is about to kickoff.

The opening titles feature the show's main shadowhunters wielding their weapons and rune markings to Ruelle's "This Is the Hunt" as the darkworlders show off their supernatural abilities like Simon's (Alberto Rosende) vampire fangs, Luke's (Isaiah Mustafa) werewolf eyes, and Magnus' (Harry Shum Jr.) warlock magic.

The network has given fans a lot of things to look forward to as several previews and teasers were released leading up to the show's second-year run, which will reportedly be a more character-driven season owing to the new showrunners' storytelling preferences.

"We're character guys," Todd Slavkin said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, further adding that what made working on "Smallvile" — his previous project with co-executive producer — worthwhile was seeing how the characters and their relationships with each other grew. They wished to do the same treatment in the second season of "Shadowhunters."

"The yearning, the longing, the triangles, the relationships is what really turns us on," Slavkin added.

The show will reportedly pick up only minutes from when the first season left off with Jace (Dominic Sherwood) running off with his father, Valentine (Alan Van Sprang). Things will only get tougher for Jace as he tries to process the new information Valentine will be giving him sans the support system he used to have from his friends, with whom he can no longer communicate.

The press releases for the first three episodes of "Shadowhunters" season 2 have also been released. In its first episode titled "The Guilty Blood," Jace's decision to leave will send the Institute into an upheaval as The Clave steps in to try and bring order back to the Institute.

The hunt for Jace continues on in episode 2 titled "A Door Into the Dark," and the stakes are even higher now that The Clave has given out a "shoot to kill" order for him.

In episode 3 titled "Parabatai Lost," the New York wolf pack will also be start hunting Jace down, whom they believe to be a killer. Will Clary (Katherine McNamara) and Lightwood siblings, Isabelle (Emeraude Toubia) and Alec (Matthew Daddario) be able to save Jace before somebody else gets to him?

"Shadowhunters" season 2 will premiere on Monday, Jan. 2, at 8 p.m. EST on Freeform.