Back in December, on the second-to-last day of filming\u00a0Chuck<\/strong>, ChuckTV.net was included among a group of reporters invited to the set to talk with the cast about the finale and look back at the previous five seasons. We\u2019ll be releasing those interviews this week as we countdown to \u201cChuck vs. the Goodbye\u201d on January 27.<\/p>\n

Our final interview in this series is co-creator and executive producer Chris Fedak. We had a longer interview<\/a> with him and Adam Baldwin from earlier this week that covered some of the same territory, but here are some other questions and answers with the man who brought us Chuck<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Q: So, it\u2019s the last season. If you had another season, Season 6, what stories would you love to tell?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong> Well, I think the way it usually works is when we get to this point in the season, we have a good idea if we\u2019re going to be going for another season or not. It\u2019s usually been like, \u201cDo we have a chance?\u201d and if we have a chance, that\u2019s when I and the writers and Josh sit around and go \u201cWhat stories do we want to tell?\u201d So we knew pretty early, as the show came out, that this would be the final season. NBC has been very upfront about that. It\u2019s been thirteen episodes, so we kind of designed the season to answer a lot of questions and tell the final story. It\u2019s been a little different than seasons past, where I have a hole, a backdoor, a secret pocket I can push the story through and find new tales to tell. This is we\u2019re very much closing out the Chuck<\/strong> story. We\u2019re talking about a big, epic finale, so it\u2019s a little different this season. Now, if someone were to say they wanted to do a Chuck<\/strong> movie in the future\u2026<\/p>\n

Q: Yeah, I was going to say.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0That would be awesome, but for the most part, this season, from the get go, has been designed as the finale.<\/p>\n

Q: When you say big, epic finale, talk to us about the scope of these last couple of episodes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0Well, what you\u2019re going to get is\u2026the last three episodes of the season, we just finished the cut on Episode 11, which is “Chuck vs the Bullet Train”, which is set on a Japanese bullet train, and the ending is so epic, especially in regards to the emotional ending. It\u2019s not just about things exploding, because we\u2019ve always found on our show that you can have bombs and explosions and a lot of really fun stuff like that, but really, it\u2019s the emotions of these characters. We mess with those emotions in such a big, huge, dramatic way in our Episode 11, that tees up the fact that the final two episodes, which will air together as a two-part on one night, that it\u2019s going to be not only a huge action adventure, which is here we are. We are doing our big man-who-knew-too-much theatrical set piece here in [frag] for the finale, but we\u2019re also going to have huge emotion. Everything\u2019s on the line. It\u2019s going to be a very\u2026it\u2019s really emotional strength that I think we\u2019ve all found as we\u2019ve been working on this episode. That it\u2019s not just about blowing something up, it\u2019s really about where we\u2019ve taken these characters over five years and how different they are.<\/p>\n

Q: I see a lot of crying on Twitter from the cast.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s a lot of crying. Everybody\u2019s losing their business every day. It\u2019s really been our biggest struggle, just trying to keep it together for one.<\/p>\n

Q: Is it Zac?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019d think it would be Zac, but Yvonne has been the weak link this time. We were on set shooting what is the final scene of the series and she was crying. She turns to me and says, \u201cSay something funny.\u201d I had to tell her, \u201cJosh handles the funny. I handle the action.\u201d They\u2019re great and Zac is usually this huge emotional guy. That\u2019s been our biggest challenge here, just containing the emotion. Baldwin\u2019s fine though. He has no tear ducts.<\/p>\n

Q: Going back to the scope of things. Someone was telling us that you had two or three units going last week.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, I spent all the money. There will be no extra money that we give back to Warner Bros. after this process. We have essentially blown it out. We have multiple units going on each day, we have set pieces that\u2026we were over at Universal the other night shooting Berlin, so we\u2019ve gone a little international. Most of the season we\u2019ve actually kept it pretty domestic. We liked that idea. We liked bringing Chuck back to the States and making the shows a little bit smaller. Now, we\u2019re blowing it out. We\u2019re going back to the big tradition of Berlin, Japanese bullet trains, but also, our second to last episode is very much an intimate thriller, a lot of very exciting things happening just within our core usual home bases.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Q: Now, are you purposely trying to make the Chuck fans cry in the last episode?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0No! That makes me sound like I\u2019m a manipulative asshole. Maybe I am a little bit. We think that this has always been a big emotional show. These characters and Zac and Yvonne and the rest of our cast have brought such, they\u2019ve made them such human beings, and they\u2019re such full characters that I think if this wasn\u2019t a tear-filled finale, we wouldn\u2019t be doing our job.<\/p>\n

Q: What are you going to miss the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ll miss everything. It\u2019s hard, but I\u2019m not going to lose my shit in front of you guys. I\u2019ll miss the entire process. I have the best job in that I get to work on a television show which is wholly unique and strange and weird and wonderful and it gets to be a little bit of everything, so each week, when we start working on a television episode of Chuck<\/strong>, it\u2019s going to be different from the last one. We\u2019re doing a thriller, we\u2019re doing a comedy, we\u2019re doing a romance, so I get to do a little bit of everything. I think that\u2019s the greatest.<\/p>\n

You probably won\u2019t be able to work on a show like this in the future, just because it\u2019s so unique. And the lucky thing about my position is that I get to do a little bit of everything, except act, thank God. I\u2019m going to miss all of it. The most important thing is the people. I have a great team here. The cast is fantastic, but also the crew that makes this production possible. A lot of television shows, you shoot for the moon and you have a lot of money. We shoot for moon and we don\u2019t have all the money in the world and we manage to do it. We still manage to do all those things that you\u2019re not supposed to be able to do, from gondolas to Russian fortresses, to blowing up a desert drive-in movie theater.<\/p>\n

Q: How call-backy is the finale going to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s very call-backy. It\u2019s an episode haunted by previous seasons, so you\u2019re going to find a lot out about those. In the first half of the night, Episode 12, is very much a contained thriller. Then Episode 13 is\u2026every act will have echoes of past seasons. You\u2019ll see how we fold that into the story and the narrative, it all makes a lot of sense. There was something about it where as we were working on the episode in the writers\u2019 room, we wanted something that played to the entire show, not just this season.<\/p>\n

Q: What is it about Chuck and the cast and you guys that make the fans stick around? It\u2019s so enduring.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s a very nice thing to say. For people that love the show, it\u2019s a show that people can get very passionate about. Not only do we have a great cast and crew and all that stuff, but it\u2019s a show that\u2019s very specific. So if you\u2019re obsessed about the Chuck<\/strong> show, this is a show that was designed for you. It\u2019s got action, it\u2019s got music, it\u2019s got comedy, and it\u2019s also got a sensibility. It\u2019s for people who enjoy media, enjoy movies and music. I think if we lock those people in, they stick around. They\u2019re very adamant and interactive. We\u2019re very interactive. I think in Season 3, Josh and I got in there and we talked to our fans and we listened to them and that\u2019s kind of a new thing in this day and age, people that read the blogs and read what people are saying about the show.<\/p>\n

Q: Is it for the fans? Is that why you put so many pop culture references in the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0Yeah, it\u2019s for the fans and for ourselves. It\u2019s kind of what is our obsession? I love references, but I enjoy more the idea of doing something in the vein of. So, if we are going to do \u2018Murder on the Orient Express\u2019 or an Agatha Christi thriller, I have fun to try and see our version of that. That\u2019s just the movie nerd in me.<\/p>\n

Q: No musical though, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0I promise you, no musical. That\u2019s the one thing that we\u2019ve always said, because we have a very talented\u2026Zac is an amazing singer.<\/p>\n

Q: He\u2019s an Emmytone for Heaven\u2019s sake.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0He\u2019s an Emmytone. He\u2019s an amazing singer. But that\u2019s always been the one thing, how do we make that work? We\u2019ve done so many crazy things on the show; we could never quite figure that one out, but it\u2019s been on the board a number of times.<\/p>\n

Q: It was suggested it at ComicCon like three years ago, or someone shouted it out and you wrote it down. I was waiting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0I know. I wrote down all those ideas.\u00a0I did. I\u2019m pretty much dry. There was a moment where he was going to sing in Costa Gravas, but instead it was like, no, Armand Assante should be singing instead.<\/p>\n

Q: I\u2019m really curious. Was the budget bigger this year or did you just find better ways to use the budget that you had, because the production value I think has been amazing this season so far.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>I think that, not really, no. There\u2019s been two points in the show. One, the first two seasons which we made, and then seasons three, four, and five we made in the same world, the same kind of budget for the show. So, we\u2019ve just gotten better.<\/p>\n

Q: If there was ever a Chuck spin-off, which cast member would you want to be in the lead role?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0That\u2019s tough. It\u2019s a very loaded question. I love the idea that there could be a spin-off with each one of our cast members, but because you put it to me, I would like to see\u2026I\u2019ll wait for you to watch the finale, because there\u2019s something that happens in the finale that I feel would be a great spin-off, but it would be a very peculiar television show.<\/p>\n

Q: The last scene, how long have you known what it\u2019s going to be and how has it changed over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s been in the ether. The shape of that last scene came about at the end of last season. We started working on thinking about Season 5, we kind of came up with the pitch of the show, then we had the shape, and then Josh and I and McG went to NBC and Warner Brothers and pitch them what we wanted to do, and this ending, in one shape or another, was always the kind of ending. It was always where we wanted to go and we knew that was going to be our big final moment. So, it\u2019s been a year in the making.<\/p>\n

Q: How has it changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0Very little. It\u2019s always been the heart of the thing.<\/p>\n

Q: So you guys knew you were getting one shot to end it the way you wanted and it was clear as a bell?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>That was the pitch we had. We said, \u201cLet\u2019s go in and let\u2019s blow it out.\u201d Then NBC picked us up for thirteen. We knew when we had thirteen episodes, we would build it this way.<\/p>\n

Q: When I was asking John Schneider about the series ending of Smallville, he told me, \u201cWhen you\u2019re home watching this, you\u2019re going to stand up and cheer\u201d and I did. Will I for Chuck?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>I hope so, but it\u2019s also maybe\u2026I think the ending of Smallville<\/strong>, it\u2019s a very specific ending for a show that\u2019s been promising that for quite some time and that\u2019s an awesome moment. It\u2019s a little different. Hopefully it\u2019s a cheer-worthy moment, but it\u2019s also a little different than that.<\/p>\n

Q: So knowing that this is it after thirteen, have you guys entirely stopped paying attention to the ratings? Is that something that\u2019s off your back entirely?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0I think we actually just pay attention to the ratings because Warner Bros keeps sending us the emails at 8:15 in the morning, but it\u2019s not been the focus. We know what our run is, we know what we\u2019re doing, so it has been a little liberating in that sense. But we still look at the ratings.<\/p>\n

Q: So would you say that the ending you guys have written is catering to make you guys happy or more towards the fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n

F:<\/strong> Oh, it\u2019s both. I think that we\u2019re fans of the show. The writing staff specifically, especially when it comes to constructing the ending, we\u2019re fans of the show. We watch it. From the get-go, the writers have been trying to entertain ourselves, so we\u2019re looking at it from a fan perspective. So it\u2019s for everybody. There\u2019s got to be a point when you\u2019re writing it that you say, \u201cThis is the thing we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: What are some of your favorite series endings?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0Newhart. Newhart\u2019s the best ever, but it\u2019s also a very different ending. I think that\u2019s the best I can think of. There\u2019s the snowglobe. We don\u2019t want to do the snowglobe.<\/p>\n

Q: Sitting at the diner eating onion rings.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0Sitting at the diner, yeah. I\u2019ve always loved the secret agent setup, the prisoner ran away, that you can actually do things. That there are maybe other shows out there in the future that you could take those characters in that role. But Newhart\u2019s my favorite. The Wire<\/strong>\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

Q: What\u2019s next for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:\u00a0<\/strong>I don\u2019t know. I\u2019m working on a couple of projects. Josh and I are working on a couple of projects together and we\u2019ll hopefully see what happens. We have had a great time working on this television show and we have some ideas that are equally as quirky and strange and fun, and hopefully someone will make them into a TV show.\u00a0We\u2019re also working on a movie together.<\/p>\n

Q: That\u2019s not the big Chuck movie everyone\u2019s asking for, is it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fedak:<\/strong>\u00a0No, not yet. We\u2019ll have to wait a couple of years on that.<\/p>\n

The two-episode Chuck<\/strong> series finale airs Friday, January 27 at 8\/7c on NBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in December, on the second-to-last day of filming\u00a0Chuck, ChuckTV.net was included among a group of reporters invited to the set to talk with the cast about the finale and look back at the previous five seasons. We\u2019ll be releasing those interviews this week as we countdown to \u201cChuck vs. the Goodbye\u201d on January 27. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[95,138],"class_list":["post-12809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news","tag-chuck-vs-the-goodbye","tag-finale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12809"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14601,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12809\/revisions\/14601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}