Fox’s Lucifer starring Tom Ellis as the sexy Devil vacationing on Earth returns from its spring break with season two episode 14 airing on Monday, May 1, 2017 at 9pm ET/PT. The popular series has been renewed for a third season and during the 2017 WonderCon in Anaheim, executive producers Ildy Modrovich and Joe Henderson talked about their vision for the upcoming third season. Modrovich and Henderson also filled us in on the stand-alone episodes as well as the possibility of a DC crossover at some point in the future.
A tweet from @LUCIFERwriters said “Things we want to see in 301,” and then didn’t reveal the answer. What’s really listed there?
Joe Henderson: “It’s funny. What happened was the reason there’s nothing listed under there is because I erased it because we were taking photos. That used to actually be full of stuff. What happened was our room is wrapped right now. (Explaining to Ildy) Tennessee (Martin) had taken a picture and posted it, but I had already erased it because we were taking photos. What happened is we had two weeks before we wrapped our room where we started really figuring out season three. One of the things I always like to do is start a slush list. Just like what are all the things we hope, the things we want to see? What’s the fun that we’ve left on the table? The crazy things that we’ve always wanted to do but haven’t had time or whatever. And then just start looking at that to remind ourselves what the true norths of the season can be.”
Ildy Modrovich: “And then suddenly an arc begins to form. It’s very freeform, like jazz.”
Does it change season three at all now that you’re moving four episodes from season two?
Ildy Modrovich: “No, not so much. It’s funny, the four episodes – they call them stand-alone episodes – but they’re really not in that they move our characters quite deeper almost because we get to spend…like one episode focuses only really on Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt). We get to really understand what this poor demon who doesn’t have a soul – does she really not have a soul? What does that mean to not have a soul? We spend a lot of time exploring that. And there’s also the nuggets, little mythological nuggets that are kind of in each one where somebody just throws out a line and you go, ‘Wait? What did she just say?'”
Joe Henderson: “Yeah, like, ‘What does that mean?’ We know where we want those episodes to air in season three. What we did is we basically wrote episodes that if aired in season two would set up season three. Or, if they aired in season three they would just more immediately set up the story. So, hopefully when you watch season three you won’t be going, ‘Is that a stand-alone or is that a regular episode?’ Because they do fold in really nicely.
We knew no matter as much as we wanted them to stand-alone, we wanted them to move the story forward. Personally, that’s what I watch the show for. That’s what I love all my shows for. But what it really let us do is play. We made an episode that’s a little darker and weirder. We made an episode that’s a little more fun. Like the Maze episode is like a Bond movie. It’s really cool and it’s both not our show at all and it’s totally our show. What we’ve discovered is going into season three sort of let us open up where the show is a little bit. Like, we have a great ensemble. The show was always going to be called Lucifer and always going to be about Lucifer, but we’ve got a great supporting cast and spending a little bit more time digging into those side characters just makes the world richer.”
Ildy Modrovich: “When we first got the edict, I have to say we were like, ‘What? What does that mean?’ We have a serialized show on our hands even though it’s procedural. How do we make stand-alone episodes in a serialized show? It didn’t make sense. But then we immediately went to shows like The X-Files that we love, and some of the episodes that were our favorites were ones that were just completely close-ended. And so we kind of got excited about it.
I think it did come at the right time because now we have spent time with our characters and we want to know more about them. We want to know about Maze. We want to know about…who else do we explore? We want to know about Ella Lopez.”
Joe Henderson: “We want to know about Lucifer when he first came to LA. That would be a cool episode.”
Ildy Modrovich: “That would be a cool episode, wouldn’t it, to see that first day he landed in LA? (Smiling) We should do that.”
Joe Henderson: “And then what Amenadiel (DB Woodside) was like back then?”
How does it impact what you planned for the end of season two?
Joe Henderson: “Not at all. What’s nice is we were always building an 18 episode arc. What was actually helpful about it is they didn’t try and make us fat. They didn’t try and make us add four episodes or whatever. They’re like, ‘We love this arc. We’re really happy with where you are. Have fun.’ And they really encouraged us, like, ‘Go off format. Play around with the way the show works.’ We took it and ran with it.”
Did you consider a DC crossover and what would you do?
Joe Henderson: “I would love to do something like that. The problem is that the (Greg) Berlanti-verse is so tightly wound together. They’re their own machine. I think Gotham sort of exists in almost its own timeframe, so there’s not really a natural show for us to crossover with.”
Ildy Modrovich: “But, never say never.”
Joe Henderson: “But, man, I would like to.”
Ildy Modrovich: “That’s the thing. Never say never.”
Joe Henderson: “I love those things.”
A Lucifer/Constantine crossover would be a good fit.
Joe Henderson: “But then he crossed over with Arrow so he’s part of the Arrow-verse. At some point we’d love to do something like that.”
Ildy Modrovich: “The thing also, if I may say about our show, is that we can kind of do anything that fits. We have a bit of a license to because we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Hopefully that comes across. So, I think if Batman did show up…I don’t know. Maybe it’s not so weird.”
Joe Henderson: “You know what I want to do? On the next big crossover between all the Berlanti shows, I want all the characters together and in the background you see Lucifer just like smoking, looking at them, and then he shakes his head and walks away. That’s what I want to have happen. That would be the greatest crossover ever for me.”
Watch the full Ildy Modrovich and Joe Henderson Lucifer interview:
