'American Odyssey,' 'Last Ship,' '' and more on Day 2 of Wonder-Con

04.05.2015

Day 2 of WonderCon 2015 has arrived and with it comes oodles of panels for shows about to premiere.

The Last Ship (TNT)

TNT joined the fray on Saturday, with banners advertising the second season of the show, as well as brand new "R U Immune 2?" t-shirts for those that attended the show's panel. TNT also released a season-two trailer on Friday.

The Last Ship premieres June 28 at 9/8 c.

The Messengers (CW)

In Attendance: creator Eoghan O'Donnell; Executive Producer Trey Callaway; stars Jon Fletcher, Shantel VanSanten, Craig Frank, Diogo Morgado, Anna Diop, Joel Courtney and J.D. Pardo.

CW's newest genre show certainly has a high concept: five different characters are given gifts and are tasked with the responsibility to prevent the end of days on Earth.

Given the Easter weekend background and the appearance of angels and a Devil-like character in its pilot, it's easy to see the show's religious themes. But, Trey Callaway explains, "it's not a show about religion. It's a show about faith." Shantel VanSanten continues, "it's not about a specific faith or message, it's about coming together." This is a theme Callaway hopes can be explored "over many seasons."

While The Messengers is about hope, that's not the show's main priority.

"I'm a big sucker for a rollercoaster. Our first job is to entertain in a way a rollercoaster does. We were given a great gift in the creation of the pilot, that is a very entertaining rollercoaster ride, that it is something that makes you think and more importantly, makes you feel," Callaway describes.

The thirteen episodes in season 1 "are filled with one common denominator: no matter how fun, exciting, romantic, sexy or thrilling they may be, they really make you think or feel something. Please come along on this ride with us," Callaway urges.

The Messengers' ride begins on the CW Friday April 17.

American Odyssey (NBC)

In Attendance: moderator Eric Goldman (IGN); executive producers Adam Armus, Kay Foster and showrunner Peter Horton; star Peter Facinelli.

Following a screening of the pilot of the political conspiracy thriller starring Anna Friel, we learned the genesis of the project. The title is no accident: the series began with the idea of a modern-day Homer's Odyssey. The show, which tackles war, politics and protests, "speaks to a lot of truths that are happening in our world. It should make you a little uncomfortable but entertain you as well," Adam Armus says.

Thanks to the omniscient POV that the audience receives, "we really tell the audience what's going on as we go," Peter Horton assures. The writers and producers promise closure at the end of not only this season, but "every season." Should American Odyssey continue with more seasons, Horton promises "different characters will be in different places next year. There will always be an Odyssey."

The producers take their responsibility to reflect the military seriously. "Our job is to be really thorough and be true to it as well as tell a story. And hopefully shed some light. The Iraq war was not fought by America, but by the American military. There isn't enough attention paid to our vets," Horton says. They hope their show can highlight the things they do, and in addition, because "our lead is a female, we wanted to shine a light on the over 200,000 women in our armed forces," Armus says.

During the panel, postcards were passed out advertising the show's new website, exploreamericanodyssey.com. The site features an interactive map enabling viewers to track and unlock the secrets of the show, that will feature new mysteries every week. Attendees also received American Odyssey decal American flag bandanas.

NBC's new drama premieres Sunday, April 5, on NBC at 10/9 c.

TV Guide's Fan-Favorite Showrunners

In Attendance: moderator Michael Schneider (TV Guide); showrunners Brannon Brago (Salem), Kerry Ehrin (Bates Motel), Adam Goldberg (The Goldbergs), Dan Harmon (Community), Alex Hirsch (Gravity Falls), Peter Horton (American Odyssey) and (Orphan Black).

In a rollicking round-table discussion with many of TV's best and most vibrant showrunners about the nature of their job and what it means in the "golden age of TV," many truths were revealed. With and social media, Schneider points out that we're living in the age of the "superstar showrunner." This has been a double-edged sword for Dan Harmon who thinks "I got fired largely because of the visibility." But then again, "I never would've been able to be a showrunner in the 80's. Too few positions and I wasn't professional enough…Before blogging, tweeting, my brand of obnoxious and the visibility of the showrunner, I would've been fired and never rehired. I would've been fired before making it up to showrunner, because the industry was more tightly run, and there was less content to make. Now we have a lot of content. The thing is how do you make money when people have a million things to choose from…the answer has been to stop caring quite as much if someone's a pain in the ass and let them make their thing."

Alex Hirsch loves having fans, but with Twitter he has become the "face of every mistake. The more visible you are, the more crazy people are mad at you." He also gets all the love, so it's a double-edged sword.

Adam Goldberg loves having a relationship with fans on Twitter and Facebook, because it lets you "find out what people like and find out what people are responding to and work in that direction more." You can also gauge what they don't like, which is helpful. Negativity has "really been few and far between. What I take issue is from critics who don't watch the show and say it sucks. Fans if they're watching it and they hate it, that's their right." These days, it's become increasingly hard to shock people. Schneider points out that this has meant putting a lot of kids in peril. Harmon jokes, "it's our unconscious defense against overpopulation." In many ways, the "lids been lifted," Harmon says.

Braga's had that experience with WGN's Salem, which is known for its sex and scares. "If anything, they pushed us more. They wanted to make a lot of noise, and be noticed." This experience isn't shared by Hirsch, who works for Disney, and had trouble making a Spin the Bottle reference on his kid's show.

With content expanding beyond TV, Harmon commented on his experience with Yahoo! screen. "We have a bazillion viewers now. It's pretty crazy. Now that they're counting clicks instead of journals from baby boomers, it turns out as many people are watching any given show as we think people are watching." The dark side of it is that "there's no public record of your success," like Nielsen numbers.

While it's a lot of hard work, and is described as being both President and janitor by Hirsch, Peter Horton calls it "the job of a lifetime…it's the best job in the world." TV and its innumerable incarnations is a serious power in entertainment, and these lucky men and women find themselves with the most control of anyone else in the industry.

Orphan Black (BBC)

In Attendance: moderator Leanne Aguilera (Entertainment Tonight); co-creator and writer Graeme Manson, stars Kristian Bruun, , , Maria Doyle-Kennedy and .

With its third season premiere coming April 18, BBC was ready to make a splash at WonderCon, and it did, unveiling seven (!) separate sneak peeks throughout the evening panel, teasing massive developments to the #CloneClub. Star was the most noticeable absentee from the panel, but she filmed an apology and a hello to her fans.

Before any of the exclusive never-before-seen footage was screened, Graeme Manson made the obligatory plea not to spoil the goodies online. "We do this quite a bit, where we sneak peek right before the season. I have to ask very kindly to not tweet and not to spoil and not to tumble any of this."

In addition to exclusive giveaway Orphan Black buttons, Jordan Gaveris teamed up with Yahoo! TV for a Twitter takeover for the day, tweeting his convention experiences.

Orphan Black aims to takeover Twitter again April 18 at 9/8 c.