Tom Hopper and Emmy Raver-Lampman in a scene from season one of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ (Photo by Michael Gibson / Netflix)
Netflix officially confirmed The Umbrella Academy will return for a second season. According to the streaming service’s announcement, The Umbrella Academy season two will consist of 10 one-hour episodes.
Filming is expected to get underway in Toronto this summer. Season one premiered on February 15, 2019. Netflix hasn’t set a premiere date for the new episodes.
Season two will bring back Ellen Page (Into the Forest) as Vanya Hargreeves, Tom Hopper (Black Sails) as Luther Hargreeves, Emmy Raver-Lampman (Hamilton) as Allison Hargreeves, Robert Sheehan (Genius) as Klaus Hargreeves, David Castañeda (Switched at Birth) as Diego Hargreeves, Aidan Gallagher (Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn) as Number Five, and Justin Min (Beerfest: Thirst for Victory) as Ben Hargreeves. New cast members will be revealed at a later date.
Steve Blackman (Fargo, Altered Carbon) returns to guide the second season as showrunner. Blackman also executive produces along with Jeff F. King (Hand of God) as well as Bluegrass Television and Dark Horse Entertainment’s Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg. The series is based on the Eisner award-winning comics created and written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Bá, and published by Dark Horse Comics. Way and Bá remain involved as executive producers.
The Umbrella Academy Season 1 Plot:
“On the same day in 1989, forty-three infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by a billionaire who creates The Umbrella Academy and prepares his “children” to save the world. Now, the six surviving members reunite upon the news of their father’s passing and must work together to solve a mystery surrounding his death. But the estranged family begins to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities, not to mention the imminent threat of a global apocalypse.”
Dreamworks’ She-Ra and the Princesses of Power creator Noelle Stevenson and the voice of She-Ra herself, Aimee Carrero, were at WonderCon for a panel on their show’s second season. The Netflix animated series reintroduced the female warriors of Etheria with a modern-day feminist twist.
Adora still inherits the mantle of She-Ra, whom she can become with her magic sword and chanting, “For the honor of Grayskull,” but now she is a vulnerable, uncertain leader. Her friends are now a diverse group of allies who have their own perspectives on doing battle, and they all have their own lessons to learn. Stevenson discussed the adaptation and some changes coming to the second season, and we even got Carrero to say She-Ra’s famous line.
Noelle Stevenson: “The D&D episode is definitely it for me. I’m really excited for people to see that one. It’s a special one.”
Aimee Carrero: “I think the reason it’s so special is because we all get to step outside of our characters in a way which is always super fun. And you give me so many opportunities to do that as Adora.”
Noelle Stevenson: “I love it so much. I mean, you’re the one who created Adora, basically. I remember we were like, ‘How do we bring this character to life?’ Then you just read it and I was like, ‘There she is! It’s Adora…oh my god!’”
Aimee Carrero: “That’s incredibly kind. But I think that’s what’s so great about Adora is that it’s the first time she’s experiencing anything. Like, she’s never had a birthday before; she’d never seen a horse before. So, it’s a really good character to experience things for the first time – like go to a prom or, you know, play D&D. It’s really cool. That was my favorite, too.”
The first season was so good at incorporating some really good morals for the viewer without sacrificing the story. How were you able to do that in season two and what sort of lessons can we expect?
Noelle Stevenson: “I think what we try to do is the original show was known for the characters turning to camera and saying, ‘Also, remember the rain forest is in danger.’ We wanted to pay homage to that same societal lens without necessarily turning to the camera delivering the moral in that way. But like laying out the complexities of life and the complexities of our society and letting the viewer draw their own conclusions in some ways, but also being very clear about what we support and why.
The struggles that the characters go through are very ingrained in the core of the show. And so, we see characters not just make the right decision and become aspirational in ways that we want to emulate, we also see characters make the wrong decision in ways that we don’t want to emulate. We see them pay the consequences of that. The characters constantly have to examine themselves, their motives and their actions and see what effect they’re having on the people around them. And then we just wanted to make that more of the core of the show. Not the moral at the end of the show but something that is really at the heart of the show.”
Aimee Carrero: “I think that’s a big strength of the show. I think that’s a real strength of the show is that you do bring in a very genuine emotional core and only genuine things can spring from that if the right intention is put in.
Also, this show came about during a time of at least for me – I can speak for myself, not for Noelle – but it was a time of a lot of in my mind kind of political uncertainty. And so when I would come in and record, you know especially in the first season, episodes with like Madame Razz and she had this one line ‘there’s no more stars,’ and I was like, ‘I get that! I get it.’ And so, I think that it’s also a product of the time we’re in, this emotional uncertainty and where we fit in as women, women of color, all of that. It’s just a mess and the show is a place to put that.”
Noelle Stevenson: “It’s both an escape for us and also a way for us to express our fears, I think, in a way that’s safe. It’s just woven throughout the show. Like Adora’s entire arc as a person, as character, is about a young woman in a leadership position for the first time and how she deals with that. All the characters deal with that in their own way and it becomes about even though it’s not a world with sexism as we know it, the characters still deal with things that I think are very much the stresses and anxieties that we deal with every single day in this world.
We want to make a world that’s both an escape and like a fun place to go to get away from the real world but also one that isn’t afraid to take a look at and work through the feelings of watching what’s happening to our world, and the fear and the sadness around that.”
Aimee Carrero, AJ Michalka, and Marcus Scribner from DreamWorks ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’ at WonderCon (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for DreamWorks Animation Television)
Were there any characters or elements from the classic series that you wanted to do in season two?
Noelle Stevenson: “I don’t know if I can give that away. There are definitely some cool new cameos coming up and then just even more on the next season.”
You’re creating this new lore of technology as magic and the legacy of She-Ra. Will we be digging more into that and possibly seeing former She-Ras?
Noelle Stevenson: “Absolutely. We’ve talked a lot about Mara, and Mara is so woven into the history of the show, and Adora is so sort of fixated on her. She has inherited the mantle from her, which I think as women we deal with a lot. You’re looking up to the women who came just a few steps before you to kind of see what you can learn. And I think that it’s part that even the women coming after us, we sort of know that they’ll go farther than we ever could. And so the feeling of getting the torch passed to her by Mara and what do I do now? How do I both avoid what happened to her and also succeed in the ways that she succeeded as well?”
Aimee Carrero: “And the hard part is that she can’t ask her. That’s one of the core things that Adora deals with this season is all the questions not only about her own identity but like what is she supposed to do with this responsibility. How is she even supposed to save anything? She doesn’t even have a blueprint. So, I think she’s sort of figuring it out. I think that’s kind of where we are in season two is figuring it out.”
How do you feel creatively about moving to these shorter seasons?
Noelle Stevenson: “I think we get to deliver episodes more often so that instead of it being for example six months between drops of episodes, they can come much more frequently. It’s a little bit more of the experience of constantly watching something instead of just like here’s 13 episodes binge them all at once and then wait for half a year before you get another one. So that’s the idea behind it. I think that it does interesting things with our episode structure where like we basically approach these stories as arcs of 13 so usually that middle divide of the season happens with a cliffhanger. So, it’ll be interesting to see what the reaction to that is. But I’m excited to get more on more often.”
Marcus Scribner mentioned his darker tone of season two. How do you do that while keeping it still She-Ra?
Noelle Stevenson: “I think that the darkness is something that’s inherent in the story where it’s like so much of season one is about setting up these power structures and setting up these characters but it’s also there’s a lot there, the conflicted feelings between the characters, the dark plot of the villains. It’s just something that we delve into more as the characters evolve and deepen.
We always try to keep it fun and keep the jokes coming, but it also sometimes can lead to pretty heartbreaking (moments). You know, a lot of our episodes would be like all fun and games until then at the end it’s like tears running down a well.”
Aimee Carrero: “Sometimes I would show up to work and it’s going to be a comedy-heavy episode and then not. It’s fun, but like this year especially.”
Noelle Stevenson: “It’s like, ‘We’re having so much fun, oh no!’”
Aimee Carrero: “That’s what I think keeps people coming back, too. People want that. People want that emotional release in every way they can get it, whether it’s laughter or tears or just frustration. There’s a reason why shows with an emotional core are succeeding right now.”
Do you do anything different with your voice when you’re She-Ra versus Adora?
Aimee Carrero: “Well, I think…do you put my voice through something for She-Ra, like a filter?”
Noelle Stevenson: “Sometimes we do for like ‘honor of Grayskull’ we put in reverb. But, no, actually, it’s pretty much the same.”
Aimee Carrero: “Because we talked about that early on. I remember that was one of my questions and you were thinking of toying with the filter. But initially, I was worried I wouldn’t have a commanding enough voice. That’s something that I worried about also because I do another show where I play a princess but it’s a very different tone. So, I was afraid it would just sound like the same person. But I think because of the character, the other character I play always comes from a place of real positivity and that’s where she leads with. I think Adora is much more complicated. The weight she feels on her shoulders naturally makes my voice a little bit in my lower register.”
Noelle Stevenson: “I also think Adora has a She-Ra voice. When she’s trying to be She-Ra – we saw her do this in season one where she’s like, ‘Yes, it is I, She-Ra!’ So much of it is that she’s inherited this power of a person that she embodies and it’s like, ‘How do I work this?’ It really does distill Adora’s voice coming out of She-Ra because so much of it was her learning how to embody that suit of armor.”
Netflix has set a May 3, 2019 premiere date for the new dark comedy series, Dead to Me. The premiere date announcement arrived along with photos and a first-look trailer that sets up the relationship between two women dealing with the loss of their significant others.
Christina Applegate (A Bad Moms Christmas, Up All Night) and Linda Cardellini (The Curse of La Llorona, Bloodline) co-star in the first season of the original series which, according to Netflix, will consist of 10 episodes. Liz Feldman writes and executive produces, with Will Ferrell (LA to Vegas, Drunk History, I’m Sorry), Adam McKay (LA to Vegas, Drunk History, I’m Sorry) and Jessica Elbaum from Gloria Sanchez Productions (I’m Sorry) also on board as executive producers.
The Dead to Me Plot, Courtesy of Netflix:
“Jen (Applegate) is a sardonic widow determined to solve her husband’s recent hit-and-run murder. Judy (Cardellini) is an optimistic free spirit who’s recently suffered her own tragic loss. When the two women meet at a support group, they become unlikely friends despite their polar-opposite personalities. But as they bond over bottles of wine, Entenmann’s cookies and a shared affinity for The Facts of Life, Judy desperately tries to shield Jen from a shocking secret that could destroy her life as she knows it.
Dead to Me, created by Liz Feldman (2 Broke Girls, One Big Happy), is an addictive dark comedy that dives into the painfully unfiltered, weirdly funny waters of grief, loss and forgiveness.”
Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate in season 1 of ‘Dead to Me’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate in season 1 of ‘Dead to Me’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate in season 1 of ‘Dead to Me’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)James Marsden in season 1 of ‘Dead to Me’ (Photo Credit: Netflix)
The great thing about Cobra Kai is it’s not just The Karate Kid 30 years later. It is that, but with a whole bunch of new Karate kids. Hawk is one of those kids. Jacob Bertrand plays Eli, a nerd who signs up for Cobra Kai with his friends and totally changes his image with a Mohawk and tattoos.
However, bullied kids like Hawk can become bullies themselves if they’re not careful. Cobra Kai teaches them to have no mercy. Hawk may go too far in season two, and there’s no Mr. Miyagi to pull him back. Bertrand talked about Hawk’s path while at the 2019 WonderCon.
Do you get recognized by fans without the Mohawk?
Jacob Bertrand: “I didn’t think people would but they do still, you know? Even last year [we] were at Comic Con in San Diego and we like bumped into some guys. Like, ‘Oh, sorry.‘ ‘What the heck?! Whoa, you’re you guys!’ So yeah even without the tattoo and the Mohawk, I guess. (Laughing) Maybe it was my nose. People recognized the nose or something.”
How has day-to-day life been between season one and season two as far as fan interactions?
Jacob Bertrand: “I mean, I did a lot of like Disney Channel, Nickelodeon stuff before Cobra Kai so my fan base was more a lot younger and sort of like it was like 12-year-old girls, you know? Like younger boys and stuff, so that’s sort of changed in the sense that now it’s like 40-year-old dudes are like, ‘Dude, you’re so badass!’ So, I like that aspect, like my dad’s era.
I have a buddy and we were at prom and I’ve never really talked to his dad before. And his dad comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Dude, all the guys at the fire station we freaking love you, dude. You’re so freakin badass.’ I’m like, ‘Thanks Mr. Pacheco. You’re cool, too.’
So, it’s really cool. Plus, I get to talk to more people in a sense. But season 2 just in general it’s bigger, I feel like. Everything is just so much more amped up. There’s a fight in every episode. Hawk gets a red Mohawk which comes with a little bit of a personality change a little bit. Season two a lot goes down.”
Has it been gratifying that everyone who came to Cobra Kai to see Johnny and Daniel again have really responded to your generation’s new characters?
Jacob Bertrand: “It’s cool. I think the writers have really done a good job about making it all natural, so it’s sort of like you know passing this torch a little bit to younger generations. Because I mean my friends…I put on like a little premiere for all my buddies and they all love the show. They’re like really looking forward to when it comes out. I think it’s cool because it’s a show that is about this old rivalry but it’s also about these kids who are kind of like being influenced by these two guys and their ideologies, you know?
It’s very, very cool to be a part of this younger generation and just a part of this world that is the Karate Kid. It’s weird because I grew up watching it as a kid and now I’m sort of in it. It’s weird.”
Your character especially went through big jumps in season one. Do you go even further in season two or will he be pulled back some?
Jacob Bertrand: “Hawk doesn’t stop. There is no stopping Hawk. You can punch him, but he won’t stay down for long.
No, I mean Hawk I feel like has this mentality of you know it’s almost like he was trapped in Eli for a long time. The kid never spoke. He was just bullied all the time and I think now that he’s Hawk it’s unleashing everything, this built-up aggression almost. I mean, you can punch everybody but sooner or later you might get punched back, you know? So, I think there’s some tension in that aspect. But I think he kind of likes it. There’s a lot more fighting this season, a lot more cool stunts. As for Hawk getting pulled back, I don’t think that ever will really happen.”
Is it a poignant theme that someone who was bullied can easily become somewhat of a bully themselves if they’re not careful?
Jacob Bertrand: “You’re smart, dude. Yeah, I think that theme is definitely alluded to at the end of season one, just how you kind of see Miguel go all out on Robby’s injury and Hawk sort of loses it and kicks him in the shoulder and dislocates it. I think that it’s harder for those kids because they have so much aggression from being bullied. They want payback. Who wouldn’t want vengeance on that?
In season one, the boys are assh*les; they’re just not cool. Which is funny because Joe and Beau who played the two main bullies, they’re like the nicest guys ever. But that always happens. Like the super mean people are always like super cool in real life.”
Did you do any martial arts training before getting the show?
Jacob Bertrand: “You know, I did Taekwondo in like a strip mall by a Vons for like four years. I became a purple belt. I like semi-know how to use a bo staff. I don’t remember any of it though. I did grappling for a little bit that I used actually a lot because I would wrestle my brother on a daily basis so we would practice and just try and hurt each other. I did some karate and Taekwondo, not much I remembered.
But we did about two months training before we went out to Atlanta for season two. We trained with Simon Reid. He’s the best of the best. That was pretty rigorous and then when we were in Atlanta, we’re also training pretty much every day, mostly just stretching. Lots and lots of stretching.”
Who do you think is the scariest person on set?
Jacob Bertrand: “Scariest? I mean Bill (Zabka) or Marty (Kove), really. They just really know what they’re doing. Billy’s a legit karate master. That dude, we were in the tournament for season one and he was just explaining to us. Like, ‘Yeah, when I continued karate it kind of sucked because everybody was out for me. They wanted to beat me up because everyone wants to beat up Johnny Lawrence. And I wasn’t going to let them beat me up.’ So, he was like, ‘I do this one move,’ and he does this like spinning (move) and stops his fist like right here. He’s like, ‘Yeah,’ you know? And he’s just like so sweet about it. I was like, ‘Wow, if you got mad, you could really do some damage.’ But he’s like the nicest guy in the world.
Same with Marty. Marty can just snap into that Kreese, like the lower register, and he kind of just lowers his eyebrows, you know? But he’s like the coolest guy ever. I love hanging out with him on set. It’s cool to have watched them, too, just during rehearsal. They’re just laying pipe all day. They’ve got long monologues and me and Xolo (Maridueña) are like, ‘Oh really, sensei?’ They’re just like, ‘Yes. Now let me tell you what we’re going to do.’ They have all that stuff so it’s cool to watch them, like the process and how they go through their lines. They honestly help us a lot. Billy is all the time like, ‘Hey buddy, shift stance.’ He knows.”
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. returns for its sixth season on May 10, 2019, with a seventh already on the way. Fans have waited a year to find out if Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) will reunite. And in the year that’s passed, Thanos snapped half the universe out of existence!
Elizabeth Henstridge was joined by executive producer Jeffrey Bell for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. roundtables at WonderCon this weekend. Henstridge spoke to the reunion everybody’s waiting for while Bell had some news to offer on the show’s Stan Lee tribute and handling a post-Thanos MCU.
Are you going to have any kind of homage to Stan Lee in this season?
Jeff Bell: “You know, we had the ‘In Memory Of’ at the end of our first episode. There is an ‘In Memory Of’ him. Anything beyond that we would be just going down, and we did acknowledge it. And you got to do a scene with him.”
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Yeah, unbelievable. The whole show is an homage to him. It wouldn’t be in existence without him. So, it’s just extremely heartbreaking to have lost him but he’s given us so much.”
Jeff Bell: “We should all have such a great life.”
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Oh my gosh, he was so just beyond brilliant to work with. Just quick and funny and kind. […] He was the best.”
Jemma’s harder than she used to be.
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Isn’t it fun?”
Jeff Bell: “Now you’re seeing the real Elizabeth Henstridge, what we have to put up with every day.”
What was it like trying to get into that mindset?
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Super darker! It was fun. I’m determined. She’s still human but she just has to find him so the stakes for her couldn’t be higher. And she can’t fit anything else in her head. She can’t fit in too many doubts or too many other people’s feelings just yet, which is kind of how I feel as Elizabeth. Let’s get Iain back!”
Jeff Bell: “We’re still questioning whether FitzSimmons should have a daughter who has a son named Deke.”
Elizabeth Henstridge: (Laughing) “We’re on the fence.”
Elizabeth Henstridge as Jemma Simmons in ‘Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ (ABC/Matthias Clamer)
Clark Gregg directed season six’s first episode. What was it like working with him as a director?
Elizabeth Henstridge: “It was awful! No, he’s brilliant. He’s directed before – he’s directed us in season five.”
Jeff Bell: “And he’s done features.”
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Oh yeah, and he’s so wonderful at it. And he’s always been such a leader for us as a cast and someone we can always go to for advice and help with a scene or character moments. So, it was such a natural role for him to be in anyway. He’s so brilliant at it. He knows all the characters so well. It was lovely. I would love him to direct all the episodes.”
Is there anything that we can look for in Avengers: Endgame that affects this coming season?
Jeff Bell: “I mean, we’re on after it so you’ll get to see that actually Fitz evaporated into smoke and Deke obviously disappeared, and now they’re back. But other than that, no.” (Bell’s obviously joking as Marvel’s keeping a tight lid on any possible spoilers.)
Will Jemma get back to more science and lab time this season?
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Honestly, I can’t remember. Does she? On the move…”
Jeff Bell: “In the back half there’s some pretty cool science stuff that they have to figure out. So, yes.”
Elizabeth Henstridge: “She’ll always have that skill set and she’ll always be able to bring that to the table to help solve issues.”
Jeff Bell: “Right now it’s out in space but there are science-y things they need to figure out. I think she does.”
Obviously, Fitz and Simmons have to reunite. Can you give us a word or a phrase that might describe their reunion?
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Trip…”
Jeff Bell: “Did you say trip?”
Elizabeth Henstridge: “I was going to say trippy. Can I say that?”
Jeff Bell: “Sure. You can say whatever because it’s out of context.”
Elizabeth Henstridge: “Yeah, I’d say trippy. It’s very trippy.”
Focus Features’ The Dead Don’t Die is advertised as having “the greatest zombie cast ever disassembled,” a bold claim but one that’s nearly impossible to argue with. Writer/director Jim Jarmusch (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Broken Flowers) has put together a first-rate cast to play members of the walking dead and those who are out to put an end to their rise from the grave.
The trailer features clips of the ensemble but focuses on Bill Murray, returning to the undead world after his cameos in 2009 Zombieland and its upcoming sequel, 2019’s Zombieland: Double Tap. Adam Driver also stars as a cop who puts his minor league baseball background to good use batting down zombies.
The ensemble also includes Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, RZA, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat and Tom Waits.
Jim Jarmusch’s behind the scenes team includes director of cinematography Frederick Elmes, production designer Alex DiGerlando, and costume designer Catherine George.
Focus Features will release The Dead Don’t Die in theaters on June 14, 2019. In addition to releasing the official trailer, Focus just unveiled the zombie-filled poster for the zombie comedy.
Poster for the zombie comedy ‘The Dead Don’t Die’ (Photo Credit: Focus Features)
Octavia (played by Marie Avgeropoulos) will have a lot to atone for when The CW’s sci-fi action drama The 100 returns for its sixth season. Season five was a wild one for Octavia as she enforced brutal rules to keep those in the bunker as safe as possible. Season six will find Octavia dealing with the repercussions of her actions and the fallout from fracturing relationships.
Marie Avgeropoulos took part in the 2019 WonderCon where she did her best not to give away spoilers during our roundtable interview. The sixth season of The 100 debuts on The CW on April 30, 2019.
Murphy’s been described as the cockroach in the series. How would you describe your character as an animal or insect?
Marie Avgeropoulos: “If I were to describe Octavia as an animal, I would describe her as a butterfly because she starts in a disgusting cocoon and then she flies. But she always, you know, might not land in the greatest places.”
Octavia went through a lot last season, and there was obviously tension between her and Bellamy. Will we see that resolved or will that be a running storyline throughout the season?
Marie Avgeropoulos: “It was challenging between Octavia and Bellamy, of course, because Bellamy poisoned Octavia and then Octavia, which was at the end Blodreina, threw Bellamy into the fighting pits. So, it’s kind of unforgivable acts on both ends and it’s to the extreme of brother and sister rivalry too. So, it’ll be interesting for the fans to see in season six how they come together and what the outcome is.”
How did it feel to see the fan reaction to the screening of season six episode one?
Marie Avgeropoulos: “Well, I hadn’t seen it either, so I kind of was like enjoying to hear the fan reaction to the very beginning and all the way throughout to the end because I was trying to compartmentalize it between them and me. I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ because you know when you’re filming you don’t see the other actors’ performances if you’re not in those scenes. So, it was amazing for me to see all my cast and my co-stars and my friends throughout their most amazing performances too. I just felt proud.”
Did anything feel particularly different heading back into this season?
Marie Avgeropoulos: “Other than I’m in my 30s now and I started this in my young 20s? Yeah, I’m just so thrilled to be a storyteller that fans are still into the story that we’re telling. I’m just incredibly grateful.”
Octavia’s been the leader so what kind of role will she have on this new world?
Marie Avgeropoulos: “Well how do I tell you this without telling you anything at all? It’s always the hardest. They’re like, ‘Don’t tell them anything but talk to them, okay?’ As you tiptoe in and try not to lose your job.
What can you expect from Octavia this year? Well, you can expect that you know when you hit rock bottom there’s only one way to look and that’s up. With Blodreina she had to make a lot of really tough decisions. A lot of those decisions, you know, came from like Abby explaining about cannibalism. That was such a crazy, awful, unfathomable idea to even do but she says, ‘If everybody doesn’t eat the guilt is going to happen and then there will be chaos. Do it.’ So, Octavia had to shoulder a lot of these choices, you know what I mean?
So yeah, I played a villain, but Octavia had to do it because otherwise there would have been chaos in the bunker because it was a bunch of clans that hated each other trying to survive together. It was a really complicated mindset because she was never born a leader and she was forced to lead. So, Octavia’s got somewhere to go next season to heal her heart, heal relationships, and she spends a lot of it alone and in her own head.”
It’s heartbreaking because even with the people who are loyal to her like Indra, she’s not sure where she stands.
Marie Avgeropoulos: “Indra trained Octavia to become a warrior and I just love Adina Porter, like I just looked up to her as a mentor in real life. She’s such a great actress and woman. Hi, Adina, if you’re watching this.
Anyways, but yeah it was challenging for Octavia to hear from Indra that she had lost her way. And Blodreina knew that but she had to keep on going just to survive until that moment when they came through and broke through the roof of the bunker and Bellamy came down. But otherwise, yeah, Octavia did get lost in the lust of power. She probably loves that. She was like Trump or something.”
That’s a theme that’s going to continue?
Marie Avgeropoulos: “Or, she finds her heart again and tries to mend relationships. It could go either way.”
There’s a popular fan theory that Johnny Lawrence was the tragic hero of The Karate Kid, that Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) was the bully who stole Johnny’s girlfriend and cheated to win the karate tournament with an illegal kick. Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother believes that too, and Cobra Kai seems to be the answer to those theories.
William Zabka returns as Johnny to star in Cobra Kai season two, showing there’s a lot more to Johnny Lawrence than the nemesis who tried to sweep the leg in the 1984 classic. Season two of Cobra Kai will find Johnny trying to teach his students better than he was taught, but that’s no easy task when John Kreese (played by Martin Kove) is back in the dojo.
What does it feel like to continue the story with a season two?
William Zabka: “It’s awesome. I mean, when they came and approached me for Cobra Kai season one my mind was really blown at the idea of rebirthing Johnny Lawrence today. So, the whole idea of even doing it was very cathartic. It took a long time for me to process it to kind of accept the fact that I was going to do this. But they wrote it right and it was a lot of fun and very challenging to get into the character of Johnny, especially the way they wrote him today being a degenerate, drinking his beer and kind of isolating him in his apartment. He’s not the Johnny I would have imagined being today…maybe he was a doctor or running some camp somewhere.
So, they took his legs out but they kind of made him an underdog in a way. I love that. I love that Johnny has a chance to intervene into this child’s life and forms a bond and then goes ahead and opens up Cobra Kai, which I said at the beginning and which is really happening now in season two, is by opening Cobra Kai again, Johnny’s opening up Pandora’s Box. This is the snake that bit him. This is his past.
His intentions are to do it right but change things. So, at the end of the first season you see that he led his cavalry into victory, but he has a lot of conflict because they used tactics on his own son that he suddenly doesn’t agree with. Enter sensei Kress in his world, the man that taught him everything about this and now he has his kind of father figure/sensei/mentor stepping back into his life which complicates things even more.
So, I love telling the story of Johnny. I love going deep within and seeing his backstory. He’s kind of stuck in his past in many ways and that’s a lot of fun. It’s a thrilling time to play him in this modern day.”
How are we going to see the relationship develop between Johnny and his son?
William Zabka: “The heart of Johnny, when I read the script and when I heard the story, is his son and the fact that he’s estranged from his son and he feels like he failed him. So, he’s still throwing the lifeline out to his son hopefully to earn a spot back in his life. But Robby, his son, has a lot of right to not trust that because Johnny wasn’t there. When somebody comes back into your life when you’re 16, 17-years-old and says, ‘I want to be your dad now,’ it’s not easy for him to accept that. So, there’s a lot of conflict and especially since Robby’s been taken under the wing of his arch enemy Daniel LaRusso it doesn’t make things very easy for Johnny. So, it’s cool.”
The movie was two hours and set him up as the villain. Have the places season one went and where season two is going allowed you to explore a lot more dramatic territory for Johnny?
William Zabka: “A lot more. I mean, like you said in a movie you have two hours to button it all up in the Karate Kid formula. There’s a victory at the end, you feel good, and the bad guy’s down. In a show like this that can go on and on in long form, we can really explore many levels and depths. I love what they’re writing to in my strengths in my action, in my comedy, and in the drama. So, it’s really a great buffet of writing they do for me which I’m very thankful for.”
What’s been the most challenging dramatic moment so far?
William Zabka: “There are a few scenes in season two that were particularly difficult to play because I feel Johnny in my blood and my instincts as Billy I would take things in a different direction. Johnny’s different so he would go a different way. I’m like, ‘Oh man, maybe not do that or say that,’ but because he’s boxed into the situation it compresses your emotions and your feelings and you live that. I experienced some real emotion in it doing the show that it’s taken a while to actually come home and detach from this character.”
Since the new show is kind of redeeming your character, has that changed fans’ reactions to you?
William Zabka: “Yeah, of course. You know the Karate Kid fans…I’ve got all my life, ‘I hated you! You’re the biggest a**hole!’ And then there were the guys, always the yahoos on my side and they’re like, ‘Cobra Kai, dude! You should have killed them anyway.’ I’m like, ‘No, you kind of missed the point of the movie.’
But yeah, I don’t know. I imagine from the outside it might be like your high school bully and running into him 30 years later and seeing that he’s having a tough time and actually not that bad a guy. And now you’ve grown up and you realize maybe he wasn’t all bad. I think getting to know Johnny is kind of like therapy in a way. Like, ‘Oh, he’s not so bad. I don’t have to be afraid of this guy. I don’t have to hate him.’
He’s not perfect, for sure. He’s working his inner demons out in front of everybody. But, yeah, the response to the character has been very favorable. I hear a lot of young adults, men mostly, who can relate to him. They’re trying to make it work in their apartments eating bologna and drinking beer and trying to figure out what went wrong. It’s great, and then to see Johnny trying to do something right, you know, there’s something about that, about living vicariously through a character that can actually inspire you in real life. I’ve heard a number of those stories of guys who say, ‘Hey, man, that’s me.’ I love hearing that.”
Did you see the other side of Johnny when you played him in Karate Kid?
William Zabka: “Yeah, I think very much so. In fact, any interview I did from then to now I never, ever saw him as the bad guy. He was the antagonist of the film; he was the villain in a sense. But the only way I was able to play him and for him to fit so well on me was the two parts of the script that I hung onto which was the first one when he says I’m an ex-degenerate and the second one when he hands Daniel the trophy after Kreese says, ‘Sweep the leg.’ When I read those two parts in the script, I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s not just all bad.’
At the end of the movie if Danny would have kicked him in the face and Johnny would have come at him with a baseball bat, then he’s unredeemable. But I saw, ‘Okay, he’s got a conscience.’ Because of that I was able to play all the other colors. So, I always saw him through his own story of he was justified almost in everything he did because he was trained a certain way to respond a certain way. And here’s, from his point of view, a stranger coming in from out of town who gets in his business, takes his girlfriend, and then takes this title. He wipes out his identity.
To me, that was the story. But it was a story, for me as an actor and you have to always have your story and then the big picture…for me the story was a story of a kid waking up a little bit. And that crane kick actually liberated Johnny Lawrence and set him free. But, you know, then all his foundation for those 18 years and all his training goes out the window and now what do you have? He can’t reach back to that. So, he’s been a lost kind of soul for this many years and now he’s finally getting to the point where he’s going to try and make some changes and grow up. I think there’s something about that that people relate to.”
If Johnny had had a Mr. Miyagi do you think he would have turned out differently?
William Zabka: “Oh, yeah. I always say that. Ralph and I joke about that all the time. If Johnny would have stumbled into the South Seas apartments and made a bonsai tree, he would have turned into Daniel LaRusso. And if Johnny wasn’t at Cobra Kai the day he peeked his little head in there… Remember when he comes to the dojo and wants to learn karate and Johnny’s there? Danny was this close away from getting into the clutches of Kreese. So, it could have gone either way. We could have a whole different story. But that’s like life, you know? You’re affected by who you run into and who takes over your life and who you give power to.”
Ian McShane and Ricky Whittle in ‘American Gods’ season 2 episode 4 (Photo Credit: Starz)
Starz’s season two of American Gods episode four begins with a young boy’s game of Pong interrupted to practice piano. His father stands nearby, hoping his love of music and appreciation for its beauty and meaning will have an impact on his son. A few years later the same boy, now a teenager, stops playing Game Boy to listen as his father plays a record. It’s a composition by Bach and his dad relates the story that even though Bach had just learned his wife died, the music shattered his own rules as the joy came through the notes.
In college, the now young adult man is writing a computer program when he hears Bach from another room. He’s inspired to write a new program that will allow the computer to write original songs that mimic Bach’s cantatas. He gives his program permission to shatter the rules and the result is a beautiful piece of music. He plays it for his father who’s overjoyed his son composed a piece that honors Bach.
The young man explains the computer wrote it, and his father’s devastated. Can you die of a broken heart? It appears so, as the next scene is of the father’s funeral. As the music plays, we see Technical Boy (Bruce Langley) emerging into focus behind the coffin during the church service. The man, it turns out, is Tech Boy’s first worshipper.
Fast-forward to current events and thunder roars as Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle) has a restless night. A woman appears in his room and although he warns her Laura will kill her, they begin passionately kissing and making love. Shadow jerks forward in mid-sex, confused and concerned but unable or unwilling to stop.
Lovemaking complete, the woman tells him to rest and let “her” go. He falls asleep, waking the next morning to a cat meowing. He examines his body and finds scratch marks.
Mr. Ibis (Demore Barnes) is preparing to perform an autopsy on a dead body when Shadow Moon begins his day. Shadow can’t adequately describe his night, so he remains mute. He asks if this is a coroner’s office and is given an explanation of his work by Mr. Ibis. As Mr. Ibis speaks, the cat joins them and meows.
Shadow finally asks if there’s anyone else around and is told Laura’s not there. Wednesday (Ian McShane) arrives but watches from the doorway, silently indicating Mr. Ibis should deny knowing Laura’s whereabouts. Mr. Ibis warns Shadow dead people who return are different. Laura isn’t who she was when she was alive.
Wednesday finally makes his presence known, telling Shadow it’s time to hit the road. It’s obvious by Wednesday’s references to someone licking Shadow’s wounds that he knows Shadow had a visitor during the night. He also continues to assure Shadow that he doesn’t need to be with his wife any longer. Monogamy is a thing of the past.
They’re off to St. Louis to gather Money and after they pull away, Bilquis (Yetide Badaki) enters Mr. Ibis’ funeral home. She’s searching for Shadow Moon and a woman mourning the death of her mother apologizes for her loss, misunderstanding Bilquis’ presence. They discuss the woman’s faith and Mr. Nancy (Orlando Jones) interrupts, quoting Maya Angelou: “A woman’s heart should be hidden in God so that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”
Nancy reminds Bilquis of her shifting allegiances in this upcoming war, and she reveals World’s murder of Zorya Vechernyaya tipped the scale toward the Old Gods at this point.
Meanwhile, New Media (Kahyun Kim) believes she and Technical Boy need each other, but he only laughs in response. She confesses she can still feel Media inside of her and wonders if future versions will be able to also feel the past versions of Media. Tech Boy attempts to explain that, unlike this new version, the other version of Media understood she’s a god.
They fall silent as Mr. World (Crispin Glover) arrives. He summoned them to discuss the death of Argus and when Tech Boy tries to label it a setback, Mr. World describes his current situation as “blindness” and demands his sight be restored. Tech Boy whimpers as Mr. World sinks his fingers into his eyes, begging Mr. World to trust that he’ll provide an upgrade to fill the void.
Wednesday and Shadow arrive in St. Louis and during lunch in a diner, Wednesday uses a one-dollar bill to describe what they’re after. The $1 is only a piece of paper that’s importance comes from the story attached to it. We use this paper to get what we want, and what Wednesday wants now is to get Money on their side in the impending war. Calling Money “the greatest story ever told,” Wednesday is sure they can beat Mr. World and the New Gods with Money’s help.
Shadow’s surprised to see Mama-Ji (Sakina Jaffrey) serving them coffee, but she explains she works at every Motel America. Wednesday reveals Mama-Ji and her followers own half the motels in America. They discuss past skirmishes as Wednesday tries to get her to admit she yearns for more battles.
Tech Boy tries to redeem himself with a visit to the now mature young man who wrote the Bach program. Tech Boy tells the man, who we only know as CEO, it’s “time to get back in the game.”
Back at the funeral home, Mr. Ibis lavishes compliments on Bilquis. Nancy isn’t as friendly, calling her out on her switching alliances. Nancy asks why Mr. Ibis didn’t ride the carousel and he explains he prefers peace. “I am old as dirt and I’ve seen things, as you have. Why do you bring this rage to my doorstep?” asks Mr. Ibis.
Peace is an imperfect idea, and Nancy asks Bilquis what the New Gods are giving and what they’re taking away. She doesn’t answer his question so Nancy continues, calling out the worst behaviors of humans (slavery, human trafficking, the Alt-Right). Nancy describes the snatching of young girls with colored skin once every 30 seconds, and the pipeline that’s been built to “take our children from school to prison quicker than a cut can bleed.”
He adds that those who are lucky go from the school to the NFL where they’re not allowed to even take a knee. He speaks of their programming from birth with bad schools, corrupt police, and gun violence. Those with melanin in their skins are subjected to trauma after trauma. (Orlando Jones is fabulous in this scene.) Mr. Ibis and Bilquis understand and each feel this shared pain, but Mr. Ibis still doesn’t believe war is the answer.
Nancy asks Bilquis if over all these years she’s seen any progress. he reminds them there are three African gods in this room and they are quite powerful, yet two of these gods campaign for restraint. Nancy says Wednesday would not avenge their deaths, but he is avenging Zorya’s – a white woman. Bilquis is moved by Nancy’s words, knowing he and Mr. Ibis see her for the goddess she is – unlike contemporary men. She kisses him and asks what he proposes. Mr. Ibis interrupts, proposing they have a drink. As they walk away, Nancy whispers, “A king needs a queen.”
Crispin Glover and Bruce Langley in ‘American Gods’ season 2 episode 4 (Photo Credit: Starz)
Tech Boy explains that while Argus had a lot of eyes, courtesy of his disciples he now has eyes everywhere. Tech Boy needs CEO (Andrew Koji) to help but CEO wants a demonstration. Mr. World surprises Tech Boy with his presence. Mr. World believes Tech Boy has argued a case for his own obsolescence and commands Tech Boy to show CEO what he asked. When Tech Boy won’t, Mr. World steps in and provides a demonstration. Tech Boy loses his first worshipper and he’s confused by what took place. “It looks like he’s forgotten about you,” says Mr. World, matter-of-factly.
Tech Boy races through the building next to walls that repeat the word “delete” as he passes by. The exit won’t open and he’s absorbed into the system.
Mr. World walks past the reception area and the three Girl Scout types (known in the series as Penny Girls) are seated in the waiting area. They ask if he wants to buy candy and he claims he doesn’t need to. “I retired a god today,” he explains. “Access granted,” they chime in response.
At the diner, Wednesday also speaks with the Penny Scouts. He introduces himself as Odin and introduces Shadow Moon. Unfortunately, Shadow Moon is denied access to Money because that’s not the name on his birth certificate. He also has never established credit and doesn’t have an ATM card. Wednesday wonders how that can be, and Shadow says it’s because Laura took care of all that.
Both Shadow and Wednesday are denied a meeting with Money. Wednesday, frustrated, demands Shadow try to buy some candy but the girls ignore him. Shadow’s had enough of this and once again asks Wednesday why he chose him as his bodyguard/traveling companion. Wednesday angrily asserts it was because Shadow meant nothing to anyone, dead or alive. No one cared if he lived or died. “You have no value, no worth, in this world or the next,” says Wednesday.
Shadow confesses he’s been trying to figure it out since they met and the only thing that makes sense is that he does have value to Wednesday. He doesn’t understand why Wednesday doesn’t want to tell him the truth.
Mr. World pops into the Motel America café and has a face-to-face with Mr. Wednesday. Mr. World apologizes for killing Zorya and reminds Wednesday that he should have expected consequences from gathering the Old Gods to go to war. “Mess with my people, expect disproportionate consequences,” warns Wednesday.
Mr. World asks Wednesday if he realizes it’s no longer cash or gold that rules the world, it’s zeroes and ones – digitized and encrypted. Wednesday snarls, “Money loves profit, and war is always profitable. It also moves people more than anything else.”
Mr. World tells Wednesday his kind are dying, and at that point Money (William Sanderson, reuniting with his Deadwood co-star Ian McShane) – who has been quietly sitting in a booth in the diner – tells them he’s heard enough. He doesn’t make emotional investments because there’s too much risk and not enough opportunities. Money will not join either side in this war.
After Money leaves, Wednesday assures Mr. World he’s going to win this war because people like him more. Mr. World grins and says he prefers to be feared. Before leaving he tells Wednesday he’s not his enemy.
The diner in the Motel America returns to normal, filled with customers eating and employees hard at work. The episode wraps up without a sign of Mad Sweeney, Laura Moon, Salim, or The Jinn.
AMC’s upcoming supernatural horror series NOS4A2 will premiere on Sunday, June 2, 2019 at 10pm ET/PT. The announcement was made during the show’s panel at WonderCon which also featured the debut of the series’ official trailer along with appearances by cast members and executive producers.
NOS4A2 will air in the time slot immediately following season five of Fear the Walking Dead, also premiering on June 2nd.
“Fear remains one of the most successful dramas on cable with a passionate fanbase who we think will love NOS4A2, a suspenseful and electrifying character drama set against the back drop of supernatural horror. We anticipate the audience overlap will be strong,” stated Sarah Barnett, President of AMC Networks Entertainment Group. “Showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg brilliantly reinvented Fear in its fourth season to much critical acclaim and we can’t wait to share with those fans what they have in store for Season 5. Likewise, NOS4A2 showrunner Jami O’Brien and her incredible writing team have created something we didn’t know we needed until now – a perfectly unmissable intertwining of horror and Christmas.”
The cast of season one includes Zachary Quinto (the Star Trek films) as Charlie Manx, Ashleigh Cummings (The Goldfinch) as Vic McQueen, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Lady Dynamite) as Bing Partridge, Virginia Kull (The Looming Tower) as Linda McQueen, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Punisher) as Chris McQueen and Jahkara Smith (aka Sailor J) as Maggie Leigh.
The new series is based on the bestselling book by Joe Hill, with Hill serving as an executive producer along with Lauren Corrao, co-president of Tornante Television. Jami O’Brien (Fear the Walking Dead, Hell on Wheels) created the series and is the showrunner as well as an executive producer.
Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx in ‘NOS4A2’ season 1, Episode 5 (Photo Credit: Zach Dilgard / AMC)
The Plot:
“Based on Hill’s 2013 best-selling novel of the same name, NOS4A2 follows Vic McQueen, played by Cummings, a gifted young woman who discovers she has a supernatural ability to find lost things. This ability puts her on a collision course with the evil and immortal Charlie Manx, played by Emmy®-nominee Quinto. Manx is a supernatural villain who feeds off the souls of children then deposits what remains of them into Christmasland – a twisted place of Manx’s imagination where every day is Christmas Day and unhappiness is against the law. Vic strives to defeat Manx and rescue his victims – without losing her mind or falling victim to him herself.”
