As “iZombie” gears up for its second season on The CW, the show’s cast and executive producer looked ahead to the new season at Comic-Con in San Diego. We were in the show’s press room for all the fun. We got a chance to talk to star Rose McIver (Liv Moore) and hear all about what creator and executive producer Rob Thomas has in store for season two. ***Our video interview with McIver is below.
After the season one finale, some of the direction of next season is clear. We heard the ruthless head of Max Rager essentially say in the finale, “Leave the zombie problem to me.” Thomas expands on what that means. “Essentially Max Rager has decided it’s in their business interest to eliminate all zombies in Seattle,” he explains. “Suddenly zombies are going to start disappearing. One of the things that will result will be Liv and Blaine being very strange bedfellows as they’re trying to thwart the same problem. It’s in neither of their interests for zombies to start disappearing from Seattle.”
That also gives the show a chance to put McIver and David Anders (Blaine DeBeers) in more scenes together, a treat for fans and producers alike. “We love the scenes in season one where Blaine [and Liv] could be on screen at the same time. But it was very hard. Liv was in pursuit of Blaine, so to find ways they could be together was tough. This year I think we’ve got a pretty valid reason to put them together.”
As for the zombie cure that Blaine and Major have in their systems, don’t expect it to work perfectly. “That was a very untested cure and it will have side effects that will come into play in pretty significant ways,” Thomas teases. “You’ll start to see the side effects in episode one of season two. You’ll see one of the side effects right away and over the course of the season you’ll see more of them. There’s still a rat that has taken that second cure. So you’ll have in this little glass case the opportunity to preview what might be happening to Blaine and Major.”
As for Clive, he’s not going to leave the Meat Cute murders alone. “Clive is not satisfied with the investigation,” says Thomas. “Essentially the police are happy to attribute everything to Lieutenant Suzuki [busting] up a drug ring, and it’s all in a neat little bow. Clive is not going to let go of that. So we’ll have this creeping investigation by Clive that of course will point back eventually towards Major and Blaine being involved.”
That’s not to say that Clive will learn of Liv’s zombie nature. For now he’s going to stay in the dark. Thomas says he has toyed with the idea of cluing in Clive to Liv’s changing personalities. He even wrote a scene in the season two premiere where Clive notices Liv taking on the identities of their victims. But he decided to scrap it. He explains, “I wrote the scene and then thought, ‘It will spoil so much comedy of the show.’ There’s so much joy in Clive reacting. I’m not saying we’ll never get there. But I cut it out of the first episode because it’s too much fun to me to watch Clive try to figure out what’s going on in Liv’s head.”
And let’s not forget about Liv. Outsider of our on-camera interview, McIver told us that as Liv’s secret comes out with her family, it will be difficult for all of them. “She’s put people in difficult situations. She’s been in difficult situations. And I think there’s going to be a lot of struggle with forgiveness and being able to be connected and intimate and genuine with her family. Because a secret like that is a painful thing to have to hold from people,” she says.
In fact, forgiveness will likely be an issue with Liv’s friends, too, after keeping her zombie identity a secret so long. “For Liv she didn’t want to tell anybody because she was so scared of being abandoned and isolated,” McIver says. “With Major and Peyton both, they felt betrayed and she kind of had her worst fear realized. So I think that’s going to be interesting in season two whether they are able to forgive her and whether they come back into her life and in what capacity.”
For more with McIver, check out our interview below. She talks about her favorite part of playing Liv, the brains she eats on the show and if Liv will ever get a spray tan.
