Comic-Con: News from the Defiance Panel (with a big casting spoiler)

[photo from Tony Curran]

Season 2 of Defiance is under way on the SyFy Channel, and stars Jaime Murray, Tony Curran, Grant Bowler, Julie Benz, Stephanie Leonidas, and Jesse Rath, along with Executive Producer Kevin Murphy, were at SDCC 2014 to tease what’s next this season and talk about the characters. While the show has not yet been officially renewed by SyFy, Kevin Murphy also gave some hints of what we might see in season 3.

Here are some highlights from the panel, including a major casting spoiler.

* “Humans, humans! Who needs ’em aye?!?” Tony Curran, who plays Datak Tarr, joked to a packed convention room. He revealed that Datak won’t be going home any time soon. “I’m going to eat some humble pie in my hovel.” Curran said that “[Datak] takes a lickin’, and keeps on tickin’!” [X] [X] [X]

* Of her character Stahma Tarr, who has been gradually questioning her race’s strict social codes, Jaime Murray said “I think she’s going to keep on asserting herself and see where that gets her.” [X]

* Talking about the close but sometimes difficult surrogate father-daughter relationship between Josh Nolan and Irisa, Grant Bowler said “Nolan has the worst teenage daughter in humankind history! Can we all agree upon that? It keeps getting harder, and harder to be a father!” Stephanie Leonidas revealed that we’ll see Irisa continue on the frightening path we’ve seen her going down so far this season. “Irisa’s gone to the dark side!” Bowler added that Kevin Murphy has written scenes that “will take years of therapy” for Irisa and Nolan to recover from. [X] [X] [X] [X]

* “The thing about families is you’re kind of stuck with one another and have to make it work,” said Kevin Murphy. While Irisa and Nolan “live or die together & that’s still in there” the relationship will be tested. [X] [X]

* “I’m kind of a doormat for strong females,” Grant Bowler remarked about his character. When co-star Tony Curran asked what that made Datak, Bowler quipped “You’re the puddle before the doormat.” [X] [X]

* Julie Benz, who portrays Amanda Rosewater, said it was “very challenging” to tap into Amanda’s more troubled side, but that she enjoys playing “the darkness of Amanda.” She said that in the alley scene between Amanda and Nolan, she actually slapped him once (Grant Bowler held up his hand to indicate it was five times.) [X] [X]

* Jesse Rath, who plays Stahma and Datak’s son Alak, said that his character falls in the middle between which parent he’s more like. The actor said he rarely gets recognized out of his make-up. He was in a comic book store and a fan raved to him about the comics, then asked if he watched the show too. [X] [X]

* There are 10 crossovers planned between the show world into the game. [X]

* Some big casting news: Linda Hamilton will guest star in episode 2×10 as Rafe’s wife, Pilar McCawley. “She puts the smack real hard on Datak & Stahma,” said Kevin Murphy. [X] [X]

* Kevin Murphy said that we’ll see flashbacks to the aliens before they reached earth and when the ark fell. In season 3 Murphy wants to do flashbacks to some of the events of the Pale Wars. [X] [X] [X]

* Grant Bowler said Nolan’s favorite movies as a kid were the Star Wars trilogy and he was “waiting” — until the real aliens actually showed up. “And then he found Chucky.” [X] [X]

* Julie Benz explained that in season 1 she didn’t know that much about Amanda. In season 2, she’s enjoyed the “take down the Polyanna,” seeing the character fall. Kevin Murphy said that Julie Benz was the show’s “Maserati.” [X] [X]

* Another big spoiler drop: Mia Kirschner will return as Kenya Rosewater. On Defiance, “Dead is only the beginning,” Julie Benz commented. [X] [X]

From the Huffington Post, here’s the trailer for what’s coming up in season 2.

Author: Dot R

Dot has been bouncing around various fandoms for many years now writing essays, episode reviews, commentary, and reporting news and conducting interviews, among other things. Along with being a Marvel, DC, Star Wars, and Supernatural fangirl, she’s also a fan of fantasy and science fiction television shows, everything from Farscape to Killjoys to 12 Monkeys to X-Files to Wynonna Earp. Currently Fangirl at Large covering numerous geek culture related topics, convention news, casting spoilers, show news, and interviews.

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