PaleyFest 2013: NBC’s Revolution [PHOTOS] 

The PaleyFest 2013 event honoring NBC’s first season series, Revolution, did its job. It got us even more excited for the show to return on Monday, March 25. As you guys know, the post-apocalyptic drama has been in hiatus mode since late last November. So it was cool to finally get a major dose of all things Revolution, courtesy of the cast and some of the creators/executive producers. After all, whenever [Supernatural creator] Eric Kripke is involved, we’re on board. And it was obvious he was excited to talk about Revolution. As he said before introducing the recap and (AMAZING) sneak peek to the audience, “You never know when your s–t’s going to work.” So he was very appreciative of getting an opportunity like this.

The Panel

Eric Kripke, Creator & Executive Producer
J.J. Abrams, Cocreator & Executive Producer
Jon Favreau, Co-Executive Producer
Billy Burke, “Miles Matheson”
Tracy Spiridakos, “Charlie Matheson”
Giancarlo Esposito, “Major Tom Neville”
David Lyons, “Sebastian Monroe”
Daniella Alonso, “Nora Clayton”
JD Pardo, “Jason Neville”
Moderator: Michael Schneider, LA Bureau Chief, TV Guide Magazine

[WARNING: Spoilers for second half of Revolution season]

What We Learned from Kripke [aka The Spoilers Section]

• Basically, the take away from this Revolution panel was that the second half of the season is bigger and more badass than the first half of the season.
• It was cool to hear Kripke admit while they did some really great things in the first ten episodes, there were some learning curves. He said at times they didn’t move the story fast enough. Even he felt that. So get ready because he teased that they are “blowing the doors off” for the next ten episodes. “The fights get bigger, the emotion gets more frought, the characters twist and turn more…”
• Kripke said they plan to answer a lot of questions posed in the first half of the season. At the top of the list: they will reveal the secret of why the power went out early on (episode 13, specifically). Mainly it’s because Rachel [Elizabeth Mitchell] is now with the group and she knows the answer. Instead of fabricating reasons why she can’t tell everyone right away, it was better to just let her reveal the truth. Apparently, Favreau was integral in coming up with the decision to go this route. Not a lot of shows give away their raison d’etre so early in its existence.  What it will do is lead to something else. “More importantly, it opens the door to a bigger story, a bigger mystery,” said Kripke. Don’t know about you guys, but we’re expecting this choice to be highly anticipated and then sufficiently analyzed.
• One of our favorite aspects of the show has to be the Miles and Monroe friendship/frenemy relationship. Apparently, we’re about to find out more about their history, including what turned them against each other. Yay!
• In the mid-season finale, “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” when Miles and Rachel finally encountered each other for the first time this season, Rachel slapped her late husband’s brother. The show will tell us why.
• Something we’re excited for the show to delve into more? Grace and Randall. We’ll find out where she is and what Randall wants with her.
• We will learn more about Nora and Miles’ past too.
• We found out a little about Leslie’s Hope’s upcoming character — she’s playing President Foster, leader of the Georgian Federation. “She’s badass. She’s really steely and strong and has her own management style,” said Kripke.
• Aaron [Zak Orth) will see his wife again. It’ll be interesting because he’s a different man now. Everything he wasn’t when he left his wife (brave and heroic), he is now. So we’re definitely looking forward to seeing if those two really will work out their issues. Kripke also revealed we will see what Aaron’s wife has been up to since she and her husband went their separate ways.

The Cast

• They may only be in the midst of their first season but the cast said they’re already pretty tight. They love working with each other (according to Burke: “It’s a little stupid how much we all dig each other.”). The cast loves working in Wilmington, North Carolina. They love their characters too — and they already seem to have a good grasp on them.
• Something Billy Burke often brings up with Kripke is whether what Miles is doing is redeemable or not. He’s been wanting to explore the “soft, chewy center of the guy [Miles] and where is that. How does it reveal itself. And how will he allow it to reveal itself.” Kripke weighed in on this. He feels Miles is totally redeemable. He’s trying and trying’s what’s important.
• Tracy Spiridakos hinted at what Charlie would be going through when new episodes return. “Is she going to be able to hold on to her humanity through it all?”
• As for Charlie and Jason…According to Spiridakos: “Can you trust him is really the question?” Pardo responded with: “Yeah, can you?” Ominous. Pardo was more forthcoming about the duo. He called their relationship or whatever they will have a “Romeo and Juliet story. It’s like a forbidden love.”
• Giancarlo Esposito refers to Monroe as “unhinged.” Loved that. The guy kind of is. Esposito has an interesting take on his own character: he feels that he’s trying to protect the guys who get in line and gets rid of those who don’t.
• When David Lyons talked about Monroe, he mentioned how all the characters exhibit different degrees of grayness. With Monroe: “He’s more towards the blackish-gray, obviously.” He also stated that there’s a void in Monroe that “all the power in the world can’t fill. “And that’s a dangerous place to be in.”  Monroe is a broken man. “The question is: Can he be mended,” Lyons asked. His answer? “I’m not sure.”
• As for the action elements of the show, nobody’s gotten hurt yet (knock on wood). But according to Esposito: “I know the last three weeks I’ve just been in the Epsom salt bath every day. Every. Single. Day.” But he loves every bit of it even though it’s challenging.
• Tracy and Daniella are planning some sort of prank for when they get back to Wilmington.
• Giancarlo urged everyone to watch the Revolution webisodes that are show canon (said Kripke). They involve Neville and Monroe and take place the night Miles tries to kill Monroe. The first three parts are currently up at NBC.com.

The J.J. Abrams Factor

• It was really wonderful getting to see Abrams be part of the panel and talk about this show in such a glowing way. He’s excited about Revolution. It’s clear that he has a lot of faith in Kripke and his team. He and Kripke talked about the genesis of the idea. How Eric pitched a what happens when the end of the world occurs kind of show. But he didn’t have the reason. Abrams’ producing partner [Bryan Burk] had a premise but no characters and that was the power goes out. “The idea was a very big idea. It was an undeniable, cool idea.” He compared what was going on here to the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups ads. “Eric comes in and he’s like ‘I’ve got peanut butter.’ ‘And we’ve got some chocolate.'” They melded the two ideas together and there you have Revolution. 

The Led Zeppelin Factor

• Everyone who knows anything about Kripke — they know he loves him some Led Zeppelin. And so he talked about getting to include two Zeppelin tunes in an episode [“Kashmir”]. Needless to say, Kripke went all fanboy over this moment in his life. He said he’d never forget it.

Moment of Goodness: Nudity Talk, Revolution Panel @ PaleyFest 2013

At one point, when teasing the show, Kripke joked saying, “There’ll be lots of nudity involved.” And that “nudity” theme continued for a little bit. When the creator mentioned Miles and Monroe and that there’s great love there. Billy Burke cracked: “That’s where the nudity comes in by the way.” Loved it. Later, Pardo talked about Charlie and Jason getting to explore each other. Tracy responded with: “That’s not where the nudity comes in.” Hilarious.

PHOTOS

For more photos from the PaleyFest 2013 Revolution Panel, head over to our Facebook page. Watch the entire panel courtesy of Hulu.com over at paleycenter.org.

Revolution powers its way back onto NBC Monday March 25 @ 10/9c.

Catch up with this recap