Chuck Comic Con 2010 Panel Details

Warner Bros. just released their Comic Con 2010 details, including the scoop on Chuck at this year’s geek fest. The panel will be Saturday, July 24 @ 10AM in Ballroom 20. Confirmed to attend are cast members Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Vik Sahay, and Scott Krinsky, plus co-creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Fienberg from HitFix will moderate the panel.

A “special video presentation” is being touted in addition to the Q&A. They won’t have begun filming season 4 yet, so what could that video be? We will be on hand for both the panel and the press room to bring you all the scoop! Plus, we’re planning another Chuck fan get-together after 2009′s fun evening. In the comments below, please let us know when you’d prefer to meet:

• Thursday evening (7? 8?)
• Friday evening (7? 8?)
• Saturday evening (7? 8?)

For those keeping score at home, yes, 3 (former?) Buy More employees will attend. Also, if you are planning to go to Yvonne’s charity tennis tournament Saturday evening, you have plenty of time to get up to Los Angeles and get in a few practice swings.

Chris Fedak Discusses Season 3, the Season Finale & Season 4

Alan Sepinwall has a new interview with Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak where he talks about season 3 as a whole, the decision to give fans closure in 3.13, the real season finale, and much more.

I want to start by going back to “Chuck vs. the Other Guy.” Once upon a time, that was going to be the finale of the season, and that played to me like you guys said, “We got season 3 by the skin of our teeth, so just in case, let’s give our fans a real ending this time.” Am I reading that correctly?

Absolutely. When we were looking at season 3, we always knew that section of the story, those first 13 episodes, the end would be Chuck and Sarah together, and that we would build the whole season around that: Chuck wanting to be a spy and Sarah’s perspective on Chuck, and then culminating in that moment of Chuck’s first kill. The original iteration of the finale – we found out early enough when we were working on episode 13, so we were able to scale it back a little bit, but it was going to be a bit more of an epic battle on the Eiffel Tower. When we realized we were going to be airing that in the middle of the season, we scaled that back to the bridge scene, and I think that worked quite well. It was going to be more of an Intersect v. Intersect scene, like we did in in the season finale, episode 319.

But it would have ended either way with Chuck at least appearing to kill Shaw?

Yes.

Well, you spend the first 13 with Sarah concerned about the idea of Chuck killing anybody. And then we come to that point, and he does kill Shaw, and Sarah is okay with it, and understands that a Chuck who is a killer is still “my Chuck.”

Right. That Chuck is the same guy. Even though he’s a hero and done these amazing things, in the end he’s actually killed someone to save her live, he’s still the Chuck Bartowski who saved her life.

(Read the full interview on HitFix…)

Chris Fedak Drops Clues for Season Finale & Season 4

Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak gave Sci Fi Wire in exclusive interview leading into tonight’s Chuck season finale which not only teases what we’ll see tonight, but gives us a clue about what’s coming up in season 4.

Chuck’s enormous two-hour, two-episode finale airs tonight, and there’s one thing creator Chris Fedak wants you to know. “It’s the craziest two hours of Chuck we’ve ever done,” Fedak said in an exclusive interview. “We’ve done a couple of two-hour episodes in the past, and we always say, ‘Oh, each week is like a little movie.’ But this finale is not little. There is nothing little about it.”

(Gigantic Spoilers Alert!)

How big is it? Well, big enough that we’ve got 10 reasons from Fedak why you should watch tonight’s season-three finale on NBC at 8 p.m. ET/PT:

1. You get two episodes for the price of one, Buy More style! First up is “Chuck Versus the Subway,” and no, we’re not talking that Subway! Sandwich eating is optional… And the second episode is “Chuck Versus the Ring, Part II.” Do not expect to see Ellie get married again. It’s so not that kind of ring this time. (That was last year!) In fact, Fedak said, “That ‘part two’ is just me being pretentious. I just wanted to be like The Godfather, Part Two.” In the finale Brandon Routh is back as Daniel Shaw, and guess what? He “has his own Intersect loaded into his head,” he said.

2. Yep, Shaw’s back, and you can call him Two-Face! “We do have the return of Shaw, and that’s one of the big changes. But it’s not the Shaw that you know, that we left in episode 13 … the tortured agent who decided to seek revenge. This is a version of Shaw who’s embracing the dark side. And Brandon is wonderful in the part as the guy who’s flipped the coin. He’s embraced the Two-Face of it all and has become the villain,” said Fedak.

“We had always planned that he would be our Harvey Dent character. That we would essentially take someone who was an expert in the Ring and someone with a kind of tragic backstory and fold that back through our characters. And that in the end the season would boil down to Chuck and Shaw.”

3. Which means, Chuck’s going to meet his match! “Absolutely. I mean, in truth there’s a great kind of intensity. I love westerns, and there’s that great moment as you’re heading into the third act of a western.” Cue the spaghetti-western good guy/bad guy face-off music … “Let’s put it this way. I’m never above using some Ennio Morricone on my show.”

4. Luckily, Chuck’s got some serious backup! Chuck and Sarah “make for a wonderful couple, and we were just so excited to tell those stories of their relationship. And not from the perspective ‘will they/won’t they,’ but from the perspective of a young couple,” said Fedak. And then there’s the other wonderful new couple on the show, Casey and Morgan. “They’re obviously a couple. We realized that we had this perfect odd couple earlier in the season.” We’ll also see Elli and Awesome in action, as well as Papa Bartowski (Scott Bakula), and, of course, the Buy More gang.

5. But someone’s going to die! “Nobody is safe. … The show this season is a dangerous show, and the world that Chuck lives in is a dangerous place, and not everyone’s going to make it.” So someone we care about is going to die? “Yes,” said Fedak.

6. In fact, it’s so sad that even Fedak gets “emotional” talking about it! “There’s a scene that we have—it’s very hard to go there,” he said, choking up just a bit. “It is so emotional and such a big moment for the show in total, all the episodes … that I actually have a hard time watching. I actually get very emotional. … So it’s a, it’s a, um … yeah, it’s a, um, you know.”

(Read the full interview here…)

Chris Fedak Talks Back Six, Plus Chuck 3.14 Review

TV Squad has a new interview with Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak in which he discusses the back six episodes and the initial plans for the first 13 episodes. Here’s an excerpt:

Can you give us any indication of how Chuck’s dad is going to come back?
Well, I think that you know, Steven J. Bartowski, when he does come into Chuck’s life, he’s a person who’s been involved in the spy world. And when we last saw him, he had spent an incredible amount of time trying to get the Intersect out of his son’s head. And much of what we’re going to be dealing with coming up is that Chuck’s now decided to be a spy. And that decision, in episode 22 last season when he uploaded the Intersect 2.0 to save Sarah and Casey and to be a hero, that’s very much what this season is about. And the next few episodes will be dealing with the ramifications of that.

Is it good to have a neophyte spy with Morgan being on board? Because Chuck’s not really that way anymore, now that he’s got the Intersect 2.0 in him and he can do a lot of stuff he couldn’t do.
Well, I think two things. One, I would say is that Chuck is always going to be Chuck Bartowski. It’s important to the show and I think it’s also so much a part about how Zach imbues Chuck with kind of a regular guy (vibe) and that’s a part of the show.

But you’re absolutely right. What’s been great for us this season is that bringing Morgan into the spy world with another person, another newbie, kind of a virgin to the spy world, who becomes our eyes and sometimes our voice for how incredible the spy world is, and how whackadoodle it can be. It needs to have another person. And Josh Gomez (who plays Morgan), last season when we were talking about season three, he was just so excited to kind of be able to be the new audience, to be the new kind of fish out of water in the spy world.

(Read the full interview here…)

Meanwhile, Jace at Televisionary has posted his review for “Chuck vs. the Honeymooners”, which airs Monday, April 26:

There’s a winning sense of joy and lightness to this episode that has been missing from the series for a bit, given some of the darkness that crept in during the last few installments. “Chuck Versus the Honeymooners” provides just the right mix of comedy, romance, action, and intrigue as well as several new character dynamics to explore.

Given that the previous episode had finally brought together Chuck and Sarah in a real and meaningful way, I was curious to see just how their relationship would be handled here, whether they would be taking tentative first steps into the dating world or whether we’d find them as a full-blown couple.

Let’s just say: the honeymoon isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

(Read the full review here…)

Excited yet? Let’s just have another look at the preview, shall we?

Chuck Wins Save One Show Poll

Good job, Chucksters! Chuck won E!’s annual Save One Show poll with a whopping 52% of the votes, compared to just 20% going for second-place show (and sometime timeslot competitor) One Tree Hill. Chris Fedak and Josh Schwartz made the following statement to E! after the results were announced:

“We are so thankful that our fans voted for Chuck in such a huge way. Though we are also a little frightened of their ability to control the Internet. Our fear aside, we are honored to have the greatest fans in the history of television.”

Watch E! News tonight at 7/6c to see Chuck crowned the winner. Also, as promised, Kristin will be taking the results directly to Jeff Zucker at NBC to show how much fans want a fourth season. Last but not least, here’s Zachary Levi reacting to the results:

Another Chuck Round Up: Yvonne, Reviews, Zac’s Pregnancy Belly

It never fails: within hours of posting a Chuck news round up, so much more comes in that we have to post another one!

• Check out KWing’s review of “Chuck vs. the Other Guy” on You Tube. He gets a little worked up about the game controllers.
• The Sydney Morning Herald has a new interview with Yvonne Strahovski about her new film, I Love You Too, and working in Los Angeles.
• TVGuide.com has a brief interview with Chris Fedak about Chuck’s first (real) kill.
• E! News posted their segment featuring Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez from WonderCon, with Zac sporting his baby bump and Josh playing the proud papa.

Chuck News Round Up: Episode Reviews, Zac on Lopez, Interviews & More

We’ve had a few news items slip through the cracks recently, and more keep coming in, so let’s throw them out there in a quick round up!

• Mo Ryan posted an interesting interview with Chris Fedak and an excellent analysis of last night’s episode – Part 1, Part 2.
• Alan Sepinwall’s review is another we read regularly.
• Zachary Levi will be a guest on Lopez Tonight at 11/10c Thursday on TBS. (Thanks, Jessica!)
• Woefully behind on posting this one – Joshua Gomez was featured in TV Guide early in March, and they have the highly entertaining video from the photoshoot up on You Tube. (Thanks, D!)
• Don’t forget to vote for Chuck in E!’s Save One Show poll.

Chuck Takes WonderCon!

A Chuck convention experience pretty much defies description. The cast and creative team are always incredibly entertaining and mingling with other Chuck fans promotes a lovely sense of community. I wondered how they’d top last year’s JEFFSTER! appearance at Comic Con, but they did it. This year at WonderCon, the 2000 or so Chuck fans in attendance got to see what was originally the season 3 finale, “Chuck vs. the Other Guy”, a day before it aired on NBC, and it was amazing.

We’ve been asked not to spoil anything, simply to spread the word that tomorrow’s episode is a must see, and that I can say without equivocation. Action? Check. Humor? Check. Drama? Check. Romance? Check. It’s a Chuck episode that will not be watched passively. There will be cheering and awwwing and chortles and guffaws and YEAHS! and OMGs! aplenty. Even if you watch it by yourself. But you know what? Zachary Levi told us that the next episode, “Chuck vs. the Honeymooners”, is even better. The two week hiatus is going to be torture!

Now that the episode talk is out of the way, how about a report on the rest of the Chuck goodness today? Warner Bros. invited me to cover the press room and interview Chris Fedak, Zachary Levi, Joshua Gomez and Adam Baldwin, which is always a treat. We’ll have the videos up in our next podcast, so let me just hit some of the highlights.

• Adam was engaging in technology along with the rest of us, filming and taking photos with his phone.
• Zac revealed that they get a NO SPOILERS warning on every script, and for the finale they didn’t even get the last four pages until right before filming.
• Addressing the fans who were upset with some of what happened earlier this season, Zac once again promised that it would all make sense. He can relate, as a fan of Lost. By the way, Zac is a Jack/Kate ‘shipper.
• We informed Zac that “Charah” is totally passe and now it’s “Walkertowski.” ‘Shipper duty done.
• Adam joked that Casey and Sarah might share an air-kiss, then confessed that he actually hugs “others”. Josh then admitted that there is an “indavertent embrace”, which Zac had to top by reminding everyone that he’s kissed Adam. Good times.
• There was some sweet discussion about Chuck‘s place in pop culture and the show’s legacy. Josh said that when he gets recognized, it’s always with “joy”, not just “oh, that guy’s on TV”, which clearly touched him.
• Zac made Adam blush by telling him he looked good in a “Big Mike” suit.
• Adam’s niche is the “funny thug.”
• Chris said that the first 13 episodes this season were really about the Chuck/Sarah relationship. The back 6 episodes will focus more on the spy stuff and the Bartowski family.
• Asked if the finale was written as a season finale or a series finale, Chris said he likes to write a finale “as a prologue, not an epilogue.” In other words, he wants the story to continue off screen, even if we don’t get to see it.
• Because they already had one season finale (3.13) written before learning that they had another six episodes, they essentially got to have two season finales in one season. Chris reiterated that no one is safe.

After talking to us, the guys headed to another part of the room where the camera crews were set up for some of the bigger shows, like E! News. Thanks to Zac’s publicist, I was able to stick around and get some cool soundbytes for Chuck: Declassified, and see Zac strap on a pregnancy pad. Yeah, the gag he started about having Josh Gomez’s baby to get a fourth season? They’re working that and it is hilarious! Video should be forthcoming from E!, but I also snagged a photo and some video of them goofing off (and Adam Baldwin filming it himself).

Following the screening of episode 3.13 (again, WATCH IT!), the guys all came out on stage to talk about the show and answer some questions. Because we’d just seen the episode, there are some spoilers in the discussion so the video will have to be embargoed until Tuesday. Here are some non-spoilery highlights:

• The inevitable “tell us about pranks on set” question came up, which Josh answered with, “I play the prank where I pretend I don’t know my lines.” Adam said that Yvonne’s prank “is flatulence,” which brought a lot of laughs. Somehow that led to a discussion of the book Everyone Poops. Seriously, these things are indescribable!
• An old friend of Zac’s was in the audience, so they had a nice catch up moment.
• Chris clarified that they had already written the first 13 episodes before they got the order for the back six.
• Josh Gomez got huge cheers from the beginning, and many hurrahs for the progression of his character this season. This led to some funny stuff between him and Adam, including a little cuddling, resulting in a new ‘ship – Morgasey. Or Corgan.
• Josh Schwartz said they warned Brandon Routh before he even signed on for the role of Shaw to beware the wrath of the fans.
• Josh Schwartz and Chris both acknowledged the fan upset about “Chuck vs. the Mask.”
• Zac reminded us to watch Chuck LIVE. He then suggested that perhaps we need to figure out how to hack Nielsen.
• Nathan Fillion is not guest starring. Yet.
• Speaking of guest stars, Zac and Josh totally flipped out about Christopher Lloyd coming on the show (episode 3.16). Zac “may or may not call him ‘Doc’ in the episode.”
• The return of Julia Ling brought many cheers. Josh feigned hurt, “She broke my heart!”
• Asked if Casey will return to his fiancee and daughter, Adam tried to sidestep it by saying that often characters brought in so significantly do have some sort of resolution. “Plus we already shot that.” Sneaky!

Good times, as usual. Keep an eye out for more from WonderCon this week, including videos from the press room and the panel.

Chris Fedak Talks Chuck, Casey, Sarah, Shaw & More

Chuck co-creator/executive producer Chris Fedak talked with TVGuide.com about Chuck, Casey, Sarah, Shaw and more in an interview posted today. Here’s an excerpt:

TVGuide.com: In the last episode, we saw that Casey had a fiancé and possibly a child. Will we see more come out of that?
Fedak: We will revisit that story later this season, yes. I think the amazing thing about Casey is that he’s been protecting the United States of America for the last 20 years, and now he’s actually going to be living among us. He has to live the life of an average man, and it’s going to be an alien world for him. Usually, he can always flip off to Castle and go on an amazing mission, but this is the opposite of Chuck. Chuck is now going off to become the hero, and Casey has been benched. He has to somehow survive through the Buy More.

(Read the full interview here…)

“Chuck vs. the Final Exam” airs tonight at 8/7c on NBC.

Chuck Season Finale Spoilers (aka Be Careful What You Wish For)

The Chuck season finale is still a couple of months away, but Ausiello has some scoop for us on a very important part of the finale that defies description. They say a picture is worth a thousand words…

It’s the first ever JEFFSTER! music video, and it also happens to be an important part of the finale. Per Ausiello:

“It’s the worst music video of all time,” declares executive producer Josh Schwartz, who declines to reveal the title of the song. He does, however, offer these two clues: The track was once featured in a horror movie, and it ties into the episode’s big climax. “The way the original song was used in the movie is the way we’re using it here,” hints Schwartz. Adds fellow exec producer Chris Fedak: “The song narrates the action.”

(Sam C H, is this what you had in mind when you called for wardrobe cuts? I’m thinking no.) So, guesses on the horror movie, song, and/or context?

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