Everything about Travelers, eh?

Featured, Travelers

Preview: An old face revisits MacLaren on Travelers

Well, Travelers fans, what did you think of the showdown between Vincent and MacLaren? Pretty great, huh? As Enrico Colantoni told us last week, Vincent’s journey is going to be a fun one.

Monday’s newest, entitled “11:27,” is one heck of a ride too, and marks the return of a character last seen in the memorable Season 1 instalment, “Bishop.” Here’s the official synopsis from Showcase:

MacLaren and the team must help a fellow traveler plan his own assassination while helping an unsuspecting activist complete a deadly mission.

And here are a few more tidbits we can share after watching a screener of the instalment written by Ashley Park and Pat Smith and directed by Amanda Tapping.

Say what?!
We’ll admit that “11:27” sprints out of the gate, leaving us wondering exactly what was going on. It’s meant to put viewers on their heels and is effective in doing that. And, just as quickly, things lock into place.

Bishop returns
Eagle-eyed fans will recognize the profile of Congressman Bishop (Gerard Plunkett) in the main photo. He’s got scathing words for MacLaren and the team, as well as an odd mission directive.

Jenny + Philip
It’s taken us until this week to realize that’s 21 Thunder actress Stephanie Bennett doing such a great job in the role of Jenny, who is helping keep Philip under her power with drugs.

Trevor + Abigail
Paloma Kwiatkowski checks in as Abigail, a mysterious young woman who has a request for Trevor. He follows through but upon reflection has major questions about what he’s helping Abby do. Can he stop her in time?

Travelers airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase.

Images courtesy of Corus.

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Travelers

Link: Travelers: Enrico Colantoni on Vincent’s history and why the series is “brilliant”

From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:

Link: Travelers: Enrico Colantoni on Vincent’s history and why the series is “brilliant”
“When I realized it was Vincent, it blew the whole world off key. Now we know who the first Traveler was, now we know when it all started, we have a bigger perspective of this world. Such a smart addition. He’s so creepy, so well-thought out, yet so justified in everything he does. If anybody put themselves in his shoes, they would have behaved in the same way.” Continue reading.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Travelers

Travelers: Enrico Colantoni discusses Vincent’s Season 2 journey

This season of Travelers has been crazy. It’s hard to believe we’re only in Week 2 of the second go-round because Brad Wright and his writing squad have really upped the drama. It all began with that stunning introduction to Vincent Ingram, played by Enrico Colantoni. By the end of Episode 1, we learned Vincent arrived in this time period as the September 11th terrorist attack was taking place. Now, exceedingly rich and paranoid, Vincent has been capturing and torturing travelers … including our team in Season 1.

But rather than waiting all season long for a showdown between Vincent and MacLaren, Wright does it in this Monday’s new episode, “Jacob.” Like we said, no punches are being pulled in Season 2 and the scene between MacLaren and Vincent is chilling in its intensity.

We spoke to Colantoni, who most recently appeared in the City miniseries Bad Blood, about Vincent’s Season 2 journey.

Eric McCormack told me that he thought of you immediately when they were casting Vincent, based on your role on Person of Interest.
Enrico Colantoni: He was very candid about that part of it and I’m just thrilled that he sees me that way. It’s not every day that you get a call from an actor friend with a job. It’s pretty cool. [Laughs.] I’m sure with everything that Eric has to do casting isn’t one of them. He’s the cat’s meow and I’m thrilled that he thought of me. I see the connection between Elias and him seeing me as Vincent, but I took liberties with Vincent that I never would have been allowed to with Elias, which was cool.

This is a character who was hinted at in Season 1 but wasn’t revealed until the first episode of Season 2. It was a great reveal.
Can you imagine? It all makes sense, time-wise. And to play a character who has a new lease on life. You come into this world that changed on that day. There he is, coming in with a new lease on life. What would anybody do if they knew the future and still fear for their life? How would you proceed? You’d be completely paranoid, completely cloistered, avoid all the technology that everybody else is embracing and yet have complete control of it.

Was it hard to wrap your mind around it?
I had to have a few phone calls with Brad. I’m a fan of the show so I got the whole encyclopedia of it. Brad was nice enough to tell me where Vincent was headed but it was too much information to find useful before I even had shown up. The fun of it was I got to be a spiteful, paranoid old guy who just didn’t give a f–k, which was so much fun. And to watch Eric’s eyes bug because of some of the most ridiculous takes I’d ever given to camera. They couldn’t use them but I gave Brad everything from zero to 100. It’s just so much fun to play somebody who can’t be pigeonholed.

Does not being pigeonholed the result of the genre or the script?
The script. The genre itself is so broad, but Brad has really narrowed it down. To call The Director The Director as if it were God and then realize it’s an AI and there are factions in the future that are now at odds because of what happened in the past. You come wanting to prevent a catastrophe but now what do you do because it’s a new catastrophe.

And yet, it’s about dealing with the mundane. How do I raise this child and still save the world? How do I make this marriage work and still save the world? How do I deal with this drug addiction and still save the world?

Travelers airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase.

Image courtesy of Corus.

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Featured, Travelers

Travelers: Eric McCormack and Nesta Cooper preview crazy Season 2

Season 1 of Travelers wrapped with one hell of a cliffhanger. In a stressful face-off in the barn, Trevor (Jared Abrahamson) and Grace (Jennifer Spence) were both shot moments before Trevor could destroy the quantum frame.

Those final moments were preceded by some major information: Shelter 41 had collapsed and been taken over by The Faction, people unsupportive of the director and the grand plan. By the end of the instalment, Carly (Nesta Cooper), MacLaren (Eric McCormack), Marcy (MacKenzie Porter), Trevor and Philip (Reilly Dolman) had been captured by the FBI, headed by MacLaren’s partner Walt (Arnold Pinnock). Crazy, right? Episode 1 of Season 2—returning Monday, Oct. 16, at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase—blows that out of the water. Seriously. And that’s all thanks to new cast member Enrico Colantoni, who plays Vincent, a mysterious character whose back story takes up much of Monday’s return. We spoke to McCormack and Cooper about what fans can expect as Brad Wright’s creation hurtles into its sophomore season.

Enrico Colantoni … how did that casting come about? Was that a result of Brad wanting to expand the world in Season 2?
Eric McCormack: As you see in the final image in Monday’s first episode, we now know who Enrico was playing in Season 1. As for it being Enrico, I take my one producer credit: Brad showed me the script and said, ‘Who do you think should play that?’ I knew we were going to go for Canadian cast across the board, so I immediately thought of Enrico. What he did on Person of Interest reminded me of the kind of intensity and danger that he could bring. But what he does in the first five minutes of the premiere is so exciting and so heartbreaking. Somebody watching the show must have been wondering, ‘Well, when did all of this traveler business start?’ The question gets answered, and in such a cool way.

When I got the first script, I was reading it and saying, ‘Where’s the barn?’ But there is a such a good reason to set up [Monday’s return] the way that we do.

Let’s discuss the Season 1 finale in the barn. The FBI rolls in and there is Walt. The cat is out of the bag.
EM: ‘The cat is out of the bag! How can it be out? It’s only Season 1?!’ That’s what fans have been saying to me.

Nesta Cooper: There are so many questions going through our heads. Carly didn’t kill MacLaren even though the director told her to. Am I not going to get saved because I didn’t complete the mission? What’s going to happen to the quantum frame? What is it capable of?

Travelers is a very active show with lots of hand-to-hand combat. Do you do your own stunts?
NC: We’ve had the same stunt team for both seasons. In Season 1, I was a twiggy and very weak. [Laughs.] I’m still weak but I work out a lot more now. The stunt team has seen how I fight and carry myself and I’m lucky because the writing has taken this physically strong person and put her into the body of a weak, single mom. Carly is able to grow with me as I’ve learned to carry myself. This season I’m able to do a lot of my own stunts, like when I flip people and when I punch people.

What can you say about the relationship between Carly and MacLaren going forward?
EM: I hope what’s been made clear to the audience is that it’s something that should never have been brought into the past. We were clearly fraternizing in boot camp and that probably shouldn’t have happened, but who cares because it’s a dystopian, awful future. I wasn’t sure how long the relationship would go and I was surprised how it’s kind of come to a stop because of MacLaren’s feelings for [his wife] Kat [Leah Cairns]. But I hope it still comes up as a thing. It’s an unsettled score.

NC: To me, it’s still a thing for Carly. I had imagined that Carly did not open up to a lot of people ever, and MacLaren was her person. And when she felt betrayed by him, it was a big loss for her. I hope it continues to be a thing and I’ll certainly be playing it that way. When we pick up, she’ll be facing those feelings head-on.

Not only does Amanda Tapping have a role in Travelers this season, but she directed an episode as well. What was it like working with her?
NC: Literally a dream.

EM: There is a such an ease with her. Watching her run a crew is effortless. She knows what she’s doing 10 minutes before anyone else does.

Travelers airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase; Season 2 returns on Monday, Oct. 16.

Image courtesy of Corus.

 

 

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Travelers

Enrico Colantoni joins Season 2 of Showcase’s Travelers

From a media release:

Showcase announced today that Enrico Colantoni (Remedy, Person of Interest) will join Season 2 of the time-travelling sci-fi drama series Travelers. Colantoni will play the character Vincent, a mysterious individual who may or may not be a friend of the travelers. Production now underway in Vancouver, Colantoni broke the news from the Travelers set with series star Eric McCormack. Stephen Lobo (Continuum) will appear as a recurring character and Amanda Tapping (Sanctuary) will return to direct multiple episodes and guest star.

Travelers follows a group of people from the future who have discovered how to send consciousness back through time, directly into people in the 21st century. These “travelers” assumed the lives of seemingly random people, while secretly working as teams to perform high-stakes missions in order to save the world from a terrible future. Season 2 picks up on the group’s haunting realization that their missions may have altered the future in ways they did not predict, and will air exclusively on Showcase in Canada in Fall 2017.

As previously announced, series writer and creator Brad Wright returns, along with leads Eric McCormack as FBI Special Agent Grant MacLaren, Jared Abrahamson as Trevor, Nesta Cooper as Carly, Reilly Dolman as Philip, Patrick Gilmore as David, and MacKenzie Porter as Marcy.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail