What We’ve Learned about iZombie Season 3 at San Diego Comic Con 2016
In a roundtable interview, the cast and creators of iZombie reveal some details about Season 3 and what we can expect.
*Fillmore Graves is the name of the mercenary group and they are going to play a major part in the rest of the season.
*Ravi was one of the only actors who hadn’t been in the Max Rager head quarters for two years.
*Rahul Kohl on Ravi’s emotional story in the next season: I’m kind of more, not thinking of him. I love the idea and its been hinted at, and you’ve seen it in the making, being a group. The iZombie comic book was almost like Scooby Doo, as a gang of characters. iZombie TV show, because we have had characters in the dark, we haven’t been able to be a unit. I’m more interested in how that group forms.
*Rahul on Ravi’s backstory: I’ve always maintained that I am always funny about backstory. I’m very funny about backstory. If you don’t get it right, you weaken the character unnecessarily. For two years, I’m happy that no one knows anything about Ravi. You see him in the pilot and you take him for the person who knew about the brains. In my dream casting, I’d love to meet Ravi’s dad because I always think of another famous, who I share the same ethnicity as me, Sir Ben Kingsley and if that was what happened, that’d be awesome.
*David Anders: I think my goal is to play as many different characters as possible.
*David Anders reveals that Shady Plots (the funeral home) was originally going to be called Peace of Mind but there was an actual Peace of Mind Funeral Home, so they couldn’t get the rights.
*Regarding Peyton and Blaine’s relationship, David says, “I can promise there will be more fireworks”
*Malcolm Goodwin gives us a hint as to where the new season will begin: The new episode, we start immediately where we left off. You get to see them deal with the situation in an honest way. I would say that Clive represents the every man. The real person in the world. How do I go back to my normal life, knowing that there are zombies who try to kill me and knowing what Liv had to do and becoming so close to almost killing himself in the process. There are other situations that happen that I can’t give away that make it way more complicated than I thought it was going to be.
*On if there will be a relationship change with Liv and Clive, Malcolm says: I don’t think there will be animosity there because he saw how compared to the other zombies, she’s a great one! He’d take that any day. She’s been trying to stop the world from becoming that. Knowing Clive, I think he will find a way to maximize the abilities that she gains from eating brains and being a zombie.
Aly Michalka reveals her favorite episode of the previous season: I loved the season finale. It was kind of fun to be kidnapped. As an actor, when you get to do something that hopefully you never have to experience. It is very fun to play that role. They kept trying to remove the duct tape, so I was like “its fine just leave it on. I’ll be kind of mute for the day.”
*I think you’re going to more of Clive and Liv and Peyton helping solve a case.
*There’s definitely going to be a love triangle between Blaine Peyton and Ravi. You’re always going to have that throughout the season. I think it’s a matter of where we end with the three of them and who she ends of choosing.
I think she’s going to try to get him back. I think it’s frustrating that he’s lost him memory and she’s not quite sure if this is a real thing. I think she’s been frustrating along with Liv just not being able to get information out of him.
*If given the choice between Ravi and Blaine, Aly says “I’d chose Ravi. I’m married so I might be a little more sensible. I think maybe if I were a little wild and single, I’d say Blaine. I think that her and Ravi are good together and they have a solid friendship.”
*Rob Thomas says: We were really proud of the finale. That’s about as big as our budget will allow us to be. It was great.
*Rob teases about the next season: It is still largely Seattle based although the new zombies do travel around the world. As Season 3 begins, the new institution that they’re all involved with is Fillmore Graves; a black water style military contractor who is run by zombies. In Season 2, with Fillmore Graves, it is very morally in-ambiguous choice.
*In Season 3, what Fillmore Graves is saying is that a day will come when humans discover we are out there and they will try to exterminate us and we are preparing ourselves for that day and we are going to be ready for it. And the question to Liv and Major, when that day comes, whose side are you on?
*In season 3, the secrets of zombie existence will spring some leaks and its going to appear that day is coming and Liv has to make a decision.
*When creating Liv’s personalities and the story of the week, Rob Thomas discusses the process as: “It is a combo of the two. At the beginning of the year, we put together a master list of brains, and each writer brings 5 brains to the table, and it gets distributed to everyone so we have a master list. There are some that keep popping up and some that we know we want to get to. In each episode, we look at what the mythology story of the week is going to be, and try to find a brain that feels most organic in that situation. Something that provides theme or provides comic opportunity.
*Rob Thomas says, this year, one of the brains is going to be a dominatrix brain. It’s an episode where she is butting heads with some really powerful men and its funny. This is a funny week for her to be a dominatrix and sometimes it just helps us as we begin season 3. One thing that our show isn’t built real well for is grief. In the Season 2 finale, Liv shoots her boyfriend in the head, and we are a fun, funny rollicking, popcorn show, for Liv to wallow in grief, its not exactly what we do well. When Lowell died, she ate the brain of an alcoholic. This year she’s still on the brain of a mercenary. She’s trying not to eat another brain, because she’s on a hardened tough guy brain and she knows when that brain wears off, she’s going to get hit with a flood of emotions, and so we try to make the brain work for us each week. There is some hockey goon and we’re going to get to it.
*There will be 13 episodes this season. Even with a shortened 13-episode season, we will still have a case of the week in season 3
*Early on we have Major and Liv eat complimenting brains. They eat the brain of a dad and teenage daughter. Liv is the dad and major is the belligerent teen.
*We have a very Clive-centric episode early on where we have flashbacks and we get to see a little bit of Clive.
*We will get to know a little more about Ravi’s background.
*Rose McIver says, “I want to see more of Liv’s family and I want to see her dad. My pitch to play Liv’s dad is Bill Murray.
*On her favorite brain to play, Rose says, “which is your favorite parent. It’s such different things that appeal in each one. In terms of equipping myself as a human, it was fun to play the magician brain. I got to see behind the curtain and learn magic tricks and I can impress my niece and nephew now. As in terms of being on set, the erotic literature writer, the sexy librarian, was hilarious. We had so much fun. I would just wind Rahul up. Doing that with him and Malcolm was a good very silly opportunity on set. So there are different perks for each brain. In what show do you ever say that?!
*Rose on how she prepares: “It’s a very fast turn around. I look at clips and YouTube is a great resource. I have friends who are paramedics and sign language interpreters, therapists, and people I can ask for outside input. Its live improv in some ways and we have to make really fast decisions.
iZombie Season 3 is set to premiere mid-season on the CW.
