Hypable interviewed the cast of ‘iZombie’ at San Diego Comic-Con to find out what’s going on with season 3!
A new big bad
The crew might have finally taken down Max Rager in season two’s explosive finale, but the battle between human and zombies has only just begun. A mercenary army of zombies led by the charming damsel Vivian Stoll (whom we met in the last few minutes of season 2) will play a big part in forcing Liv and Major to finally confront their zombie nature and allegiances to humanity.
Fillmore Graves is a military contractor operated by zombies who are arming themselves for the eventual and inevitable conflict that is sure to come once humans realize that zombies walk amongst them. What’s interesting about Vivian however, is that while her interests will conflict with Liv’s at times, she isn’t necessarily a villain in the traditional sense. As a fellow zombie girl living in a human world, she’s a mentor to Liv at times, pushing her to confront greater philosophical questions about who she is, and whether she’s willing to embrace her identity as a zombie. The real question for Liv and Major this season will be: When the day comes, whose side will they each be on?
A new Scooby gang
In the comics, the ‘iZombie’ crew operates together as a Scooby gang of sorts, and Rahul Kohli who plays Ravi told us that what he is most looking forward to next year is finally having the chance to have the gang all together. Now that all of Liv’s friends are in the know about zombies, they’ll all be working together in new and sometimes unexpected ways to fight the epidemic and save their small part of the world.
Now that Clive in particular is in the know, a wave of possibilities are opening up. Aly Michalka who plays Peyton told us that she would be working closer with Clive and Liv as a team to help solve Seattle’s crime and zombie problems, and Malcolm Goodwin who plays Detective Clive Babineaux told us that his partnership with Liv will only grow stronger. There’s no animosity towards Liv or her secret, but there is a stronger element of trust between them now that she’s revealed everything that’s been going on. Clive himself has also been changed by what he experienced in the finale. Now somewhat of a social pariah at the precinct, he has bigger goals now that he’s seen the horrors of what could happen if the zombies ever got out.
As a whole, Liv has got a strong foundation of friends to council her now, and Rose McIver told us that Liv is “wisening up.” She knows that she’s going to have to count on her friends to make it in this complicated world, and now that Clive is in the know, she dubs them the “No Secrets Club.”
Love triangles?
With Blain’s memory loss comes a feeling of castration for fan-favorite David Anders, who misses his character’s classic quips. Still, though his memory is gone, his skill sets remain, he insisted to us, and he still has the potential to be ruthless.
But it’s this same bad boy nature that draws Peyton to Blaine, even despite herself. In the twisty triangle that has become Peyton’s love life, everyone’s picking sides, and while David Anders is obviously rooting for Blaine’s team, most of the rest of the cast is holding on to hope for Ravi. According to Rose McIver, Rahul Kohli goes method in his love for Peyton/Aly, as exemplified when he offered to carry her to the panel today to aid her hurting feet. And though Aly Michalka didn’t pick sides at the panel, during our interviews she admitted that if she had the choice, as a married, sensible woman, she would definitely pick Ravi because even though Blaine was the hero of the finale and kind of stole the spotlight, she thinks that it’s important to have a foundation of friendship when it comes to love, and Aly appreciates how Ravi and Peyton are so solid and there for each other in good times and bad. Maybe most importantly of all, Executive Producer Diane Ruggiero made her feelings regarding the love triangle clearly known as she told us, “How can you have a love triangle when one of them is Ravi? That’s just a love line with another person standing there.”
As for the central couple of the show, Rose McIver, who plays Liv, hopes that Liv and Major’s romantic relationship doesn’t move along too quickly. They’re finally friends now, and especially with everything that happened in the finale and next season’s emotional revelations, they each have their own things to work through, and will have choices to grapple with as they try and decide between their zombie and human selves. Still, as a bonus, the writers assured us during the panel that whoever Liv’s new love interest turns out to be, he will not be killed.
What’s next?
Fortunately for us, the first episode of season 3 picks up exactly where the explosive season 2 finale left off. Liv is currently still on her military brain, and doesn’t want to let go of it because then she’s have to deal with the consequences of her emotions from her boyfriend’s death.
Speaking of brains, we can expect a litany of fun this season. Rob Thomas told us that at the beginning of every season, he has each of the writers come up with five brain ideas to start off the year. So, what fun brains can we look forward to this year? Well, dominatrix brain for starters! But episode two will also be a doozy when Liv and Major have complimenting brains of a dad and his belligerent teenage daughter… and yes, Major will be the testy teen.
What else can we expect from this 13 episode season? There will still be plenty of cases of the week, except that now Clive will know why Liv is acting so weird. Speaking of Clive, he will have his own flashback episode! And in regards to backstory, we will also get to meet the woman who fired Ravi from the CDC.
‘Strong’ heroines
Rose McIver closed out the panel by talking about why she appreciates Liv Moore so much as a Strong Female Character. Rose likes that Liv doesn’t try to fit in and die her zombie hair, even when Fillmore Graves tries to pressure her into blending in. She’s not the typical girl next door, but she’s comfortable in who she is. “Embrace your inner freak,” Rose told us, and Dianne and Rob both jumped in to talk about how they approach writing empowered women, and their struggles in wanting to show women as three-dimensional, without drawing them into villainous stereotypes. Dianne finally said, “Shouldn’t I just write women as people and not give a shit?” bringing up the point that the best advocate for diversity is fully-realized humanization, not necessarily creating a fictional, unobtainable perfect superheroine. Rose McIver agreed, saying that creating a strong heroine involves “power and vulnerability. Being able to embrace who you are is true strength.”