Revolution Season Two Premiere Preview: “Born in the U.S.A.” [PHOTOS and VIDEO + Interviews] 

[WARNING: Major spoilers for Revolution season two]

Revolution returns to NBC this week with a season two premiere called “Born in the U.S.A.”

NBC Synopsis: IT’S A NEW WORLD FOR OUR HEROES, EVEN MORE DANGEROUS AND MYSTERIOUS THAN EVER – In last year’s finale, our heroes made the treacherous journey to the Tower and were able to turn on the power, but at what cost? The effects of this move prove to be catastrophic for everyone. Now, Miles (Billy Burke), Aaron (Zak Orth) and Rachel (Elizabeth Mitchell) have found themselves in a mysterious small town, in the great nation of Texas where Rachel unexpectedly encounters an important figure from her past. Charlie (Tracy Spiridakos) finds herself on a mission in the Plains Nation while Neville (Giancarlo Esposito) and Jason (JD Pardo) search a refugee camp for a lost loved one. Meanwhile, Monroe (David Lyons) has discovered a gritty role in his new environment. Also starring: Stephen Collins, Adam Beach, Jessica Collins, Nicole Ari Parker, Patrick Heusinger.

At this year’s Comic-Con, we had the opportunity to chat with members of the cast as well as creator Eric Kripke and new to the Revolution game, executive producer Rockne S. O’Bannon. Here’s some of the intel we collected about the new season:

On whether or not the tone will change now that it’s an 8PM show

BILLY BURKE (Miles Matheson): You know what? We’re testing those boundaries right away. If people thought that this was going to become more of a family show for any reason – whether it be moving to 8pm on Wednesday or not – they’re wrong — which we feel the same way about that. Instead of reaching for more fantastical things, it’s kind of like getting underneath itself and going a little darker which is awesome.

DAVID LYONS (Sebastian Monroe): You know what’s interesting is that the tone of the show has absolutely changed. But it feels more like a 10:00 show now than it ever has. It’s a lot more grimy. A lot dirtier, a lot darker. In terms of the look of the characters, in terms of the motivation of the characters, I love it. I think it’s great. We’re getting into that kind of true post-apocalyptic grime. You see humanity at its very best and its very, very worst. So when there’s darkness, it’s very, very dark. I don’t think the tone of the show – certainly in the scripts and in the way it’s written – it hasn’t changed. There’s just as much swear…Eric (Kripke) loves to write in the big print not with the dialogue but he’s pretty colorful in the way he explains things.

The status of the characters at the beginning of season two

BURKE: What happened in the tower did happen. It wasn’t a dream sequence. As far as I know. (laughs) We pick up three months later after that, but we use our beloved flashback device, to sort of bring us back to that moment – through pockets of the first episode to kind of tell everybody as much as we can about what happened. The characters themselves I can tell you sort of have a gap in time there where they don’t actually know what happened. I’m sure later on in the season we’ll start to find out about that. But other than that, the characters are sort of split up into different little pockets, in little, little groups. We’re kind of all over the place now.

ERIC KRIPKE (Creator): To be able to tell four storylines in an episode and to have — rather than a story that needs to have 18 beats, you can have a story that has four or five beats and you can tell these simple little short stories — has been a huge relief. But I will say that this season though, the majority of our characters are in one town. You know, Charlie’s off away from her family. Neville and Jason are off on the east coast but everyone else is in this town called Willoughby, Texas which is Rachel’s home town. And then all the s–t starts to go wrong from there. But it gives us a really wonderful opportunity to be a little more focused and dig into character.

GIANCARLO ESPOSITO (Captain Tom Neville): In Revolution season two, we start with darkness, blackness. The button’s been pushed. The bombs have been dropped. And we’re trying to recover from that. So anybody who has any idea that they know better doesn’t. At this point, Tom is just trying to survive and deal with loss of many, many, many people. And being a soldier he can sort of do the numbers and the math about how many are going to be lost and what it takes for the survivors to reinforce themselves to come back. But there are no guarantees. Because there’s no power, no food and he has no resources. And he’s still at odds with his son who he hopes he could be able to groom to be able to trust because he needs men that he can trust but he still doesn’t trust them even. So he’s on his own as are all the characters when we come back. There are no sides anymore. There’s just survival. And it’s a world that is completely fresh and new for our viewers and our fans.

JD PARDO (Jason Neville): What’s really great right now is that the story has really separated everybody. And it’s great because now you really get to explore their individual lives. I mean, it was so tied to Monroe. So now that that situation has gone…my character with Tom — we’re looking for Mom. The bombs dropped and she’s missing. Is she dead? Is she alive? Where is she? Has she been taken?

LYONS: Tom and his son have found themselves in a very different environment to what I’m in. I’m sort of…I find myself in somewhere around the Colorado sort of area fighting for coin in a whorehouse. We know that Charlie has gone rogue and we know that she wants blood. She wants my blood. And she might get a little bit of it, we’ll see what happens.

On the status of the relationship between Rachel and Charlie

TRACY SPIRIDAKOS (Charlie Matheson): You get a glimpse of some things at the beginning but, yeah, we don’t really discuss what kind of happened. But there are a lot of hurt feelings there. There is a lot of damage done. And it’s too much, at this point, for Charlie. And Charlie actually splits and she goes on her own little journey. It’s just too…much has happened and she has to go check it out for herself.

On Stephen Collins joining the show

KRIPKE: Stephen Collins, by the way, he f–king kills it. He’s so good. He’s ruffled and grumpy. And like he’s amazing. I always knew what a brilliant actor he was but watching his dailies — that dude — he is murdering that role. He plays Rachel’s father.

ROCKNE S. O’BANNON (Executive Producer): Stephen Collins has come on board to play Rachel’s father. And he’s awesome and the two of them (Collins & Elizabeth Mitchell) are great together — it’s like they really do come off like — have they known each other? I’m looking at IMDB saying have they worked together? Because they’ve just totally gelled. And he’s very good. He’s a very different Stephen Collins than you’ve seen. Obviously, for our world, physically, a scruffier Stephen Collins. And I think he’s having fun kind of cutting loose some. You know, he’s not the 7th Heaven dad. He’s kind of getting to play not the 7th Heaven dad.

Revolution season two powers its way to primetime Wednesday, Sept. 25 @ 8/7c on NBC.

Extended Trailer

PHOTOS
Photo Credit for all Images: Bill Records/NBC

Interviews edited for space and content.