TV News: Zachary Levi and Co-Creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak Talk Season 3 of Chuck
NBC recently hosted a conference call with the star and creators of NBC’s fan favorite hit, Chuck. Season 3 is about to begin next month and as we near closer some questions have been answered, as to how Zachary Levi will handle his new fighting skills, to what guest stars are in store for the show this year, Levi directing an episode, the heroes journey and much more.
Chuck returns to the NBC lineup on Sunday, January 10 with all new missions in two action packed back to back original episodes in the season premiere from 9:00 to 11:00 (EST) before the series moves to Mondays at 8:00, it’s regular time period, Mondays at 8:00 to 9:00 (EST) beginning January 11 which is the next night.
Chuck Season 3 plans to be something awesome and judging by the actors/crew excitement from Comic-Con this year with massive fan uproar, this season will likely be its best. One of things left open (Spoilers) at the end of Season 2 was a new intersect that self updates and features Matrix like downloading of skills to its owner.
How will show star who is always on the sidelines react to this change? I mean its a new dynamic to the show and Chuck and Casey and Sarah do all the ass kicking, Chuck doing it will be different for sure.
Levi says “being able to fight this season I like it very much as an actor and as a man. For two and a half years I’ve – well for two years I kind of sat on the sidelines and watched Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski, Casey and Sarah respectively, kick bad guys’ butts and was very jealous of that.”
Do not worry as Levi promises this new skill will not take away from Chuck being our bubbling and endearing hero, saying, “you know, he’s still the kind of – the somewhat bumbling hero and I think that’s what brings so much of the heart and general premise of the show and keeps that there. And so though Chuck now has these abilities they’re fleeting, they’re in and out, they’re glitchy. So it lends this new door that we walk through now just lends itself to both more action and more comedy which I think is good all the way around.”
Last year was new realm for the popular series as it had some great reoccurring guest stars like Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula. This year promises to increase that presence with already announced roles like Smallville’s Kristen Kreuk and Superman Return’s Brandon Routh. However other interesting guest stars mentioned by series creators Schwartz and Fedak are guys like Vinnie Jones, Armand Assante, Robert Patrick and Stone Cold Steve Austin.
“We’ve lined up hopefully a really fun eclectic group of actors to, you know, we have these episodes where we don’t have a lot of time to spend, you know, delving into the very complicated and intricate back stories of our villains,” says Schwartz.
Fedak tells us that Assante will be playing a Castro-like dictator and leader of a group called Costa Gravas. “when you’re trying to cast the Castro-like dictator Armand Asante is the perfect guy. You don’t need a back story to prove that. It’s like he can literally be that person,” said Fedak. Patrick will be playing someone in Casey’s past “an ominous soldier” from Casey’s past to be exact. So there is really a cool array of folks to see in the upcoming series.
One of the most interesting conversations from the call was Schwartz talking about the evolution of Chuck – boy to man to spy. This is season is about seeing how he becomes a spy. Fedak and Schwartz both cited that this is a heroes journey.
Schwartz mentioned that “a big crux of the journey for Chuck last year obviously climaxing in the season finale was I want to get this thing out of my head and I want to go back to a normal life. And then he accepted his – the mantle and, you know, responsibility of who he was and his destiny really to become a hero. And now this year is really about the ramifications of that and him really embracing that and going with it.”
Perhaps the most important issue and Fedak talked about it was how does Chuck not change with this new intersect? How do they risk not changing all the endearing nature that fans love about him?
“there is still this idea that like the (intersect) was designed to go into somebody with no emotion, somebody like a Bryce Larkin. And that the things that make Chuck such a great guy or the very things that make him fallible as a spy and how does he reconcile those two things, how does he hold onto his humanity but grow, you know, as a spy. And I think that’s been one of the challenges,” said Fedak.
All is definitely something we know Sarah will catch on to and be a major hiccup into her attraction and relationship with Chuck.
Fedak describes the new intersect as Intersect 2.o and it contains all the same things the other one did but it also contains abilities in this new version. Those abilities that are contained in this new intersect are what make Chuck this season interesting. Both creators tell us there is a lot of abilities, infinite to be exact.
“it’s been downloaded into a guy like Chuck Bartowski who’s like filled with emotion. And, you know, anxiety, fear, he’s in love with his partner, all the things, you know, do not – and actually don’t help the intersect – don’t help with these abilities…sometimes the intersect works perfectly and sometimes when he gets flustered, when he gets upset it begins to, you know, it essentially fritzes out and he’s not able to flash…it’s really funny to kind of see what else was hidden in there by, you know, the intersect scientists.”
Lastly, the bromance was an important question and area that the creators talked about. Chuck and Morgan will be living together as Awesome and Ellie find their own place. While close in proximity (physically) Morgan now sees how absent his friendship – his friend and friendship are. We are told that this takes a tole in a big way as the series will move on this season.
Chuck Season 3 definitely sounds big and a great direction for our characters and who they are. We can’t wait to see the premiere next month.
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