Eric Kripke On ‘Revolution’: You Should Look For Clues Everywhere…

Have a boat load of questions about Revolution after tonight’s episode? Understandable, we do too! Eric Kripke recently addressed a couple aspects of the series, and we have his comments and insights for you below!

We’re very early in the season, and we’ve already learned so much about his background with the militia, and now Rachel’s disappearance. How long do you guys think or plan on keeping that information from the rest of the group? Like, how long or how many secrets does he have (hiding) back there?

Eric Kripke: Well, you know the good news is is, you know he hasn’t – it’s been years. I mean, you know there is – we met in the – in you know 2012 we found him 15 years later. We’ve only revealed, you know two or three episodes of what has happened in his colorful and mysterious past, and obviously there’s an endless amount of material, in terms of what he’s done and what he’s been through.

So, we’ll probably reveal – I think right now we’re – I mean, certainly within Season 1 we reveal what the story line with Rachel was all about, and reveal not just to the audience, but to Charlie, which, you know I think will be pretty explosive for Charlie to hear. And, you know we’ll reveal it, because again the good news is is there’s always more.

And Miles – you know we reveal really in the first of the ten episodes, you know we really start to flush out his relationship with General Monroe. I think in a very sort of tragic emotional Cain & Abel kind of way, and we really start to understand who those two men were and Miles’ role in forming this militia, which is now, you know obviously the enemy of the show – or the enemy of the heroes in the show.

And so, we’ll – you know we’ll just keep exploring it because, you know there’s a lot of material in his background that we can touch on and reveal. So, you know we’ll answer some – like I said, we’ll answer some questions, and then we’ll ask some more.

How long do you think you can keep the quest for Danny going before you really need to shake things up? Can you talk a bit about that?

Eric Kripke: I can, and I can give a very specific answer. We can keep that quest going until Episode 10, and then we shake things up. Yeah, no, the – this is – it’s – again, this is absolutely my MO of show writing. They catch up to Danny in Episode 10 and we climax that story, because you can’t keep that story going forever. And we never had any intention of keeping the search for Danny going forever.

You know, it was only a way to introduce, you know the – bring the audience into the world and introduce them to the characters on a nice clean, simple story line as, you know kind of the prologue to a much bigger story. But, you know I would say by Episode 10 we will have played that prologue out, and it’s time to begin the next chapter of the show and it’s time to explore much more why the show is in fact titled Revolution.

Did the full season pickup mean that you were able to go ahead with some story ideas and arcs that you’d maybe put on the backburner in case NBC did cut the episode short?

Eric Kripke: Well, you know television showrunners are a foolishly optimistic bunch. And – you know and I think we were designing our story lines in the hopes that there would be a full season pickup. And then, in my back – it was more that. It was more like I was, you know designing the story line for 22, and then in my back pocket I had a – I had like a nuclear failsafe that it really looked everything was going off the cliff I had an emergency contingency plan to wrap everything up very quickly.

But obviously, I’m very thankful to the network that they gave us the opportunity to, you know be able to tell the story.

Going back to the pilot when the blackout happened, it looks like it was very gradual over the whole Earth, should we be reading into that, looking for clues as to the origin of the blackout, or did that just look cool to have that sweep of darkness over the Earth?

Eric Kripke: You should look for clues everywhere… That’s the short answer. The longer answer is, you know there was a phenomenon that, you know we have up our sleeve as to what caused the blackout, and that that it – what you saw in that globe shot is an accurate representation of what we are working on. And – but, you know right now we’re currently in the writers room. We’re talking dangerously about revealing that secret before the end of the first season. So again, it’s sort of my philosophy of not being too precious with anything. So, we may reveal the secret sooner than later.

Why the decision to downgrade Maggie from series regular, and then eventually write her out?

Eric Kripke: Yeah, sure. I mean, what – you know what it really came down to more than any other decision, Anna Lise is a – was a wonderful actress, is a wonderful actress rather. Anna Lise is a wonderful actress, and I – you know and I love that character. It’s – you know I’m sort of have a bad habit in the shows that I run of killing off the people that I love, and I think Maggie was one of those.

I think we decided internally that very early on that it was really important to show that this world had very real stakes, and that it was truly dangerous. And because, you know you’re not close to hospitals, you’re not close to paramedics, you’re not close to help, and we very quickly realized that the scariest thing we could do was to kill the doctor among them.

And so it was purely a creative decision about really putting a sharp – giving the world the real charge of danger, so that as we move forward in the series we want the audience to really understand that nobody is safe, including the main characters, and just bring that suspense as the series continues because we think that’s honest to the world we’re trying to create here.

Are we going to see Nate and Charlie’s relationship develop more? Is he going to be sticking around?

Eric Kripke: You know, he kind of – yeah, the short answer, yes, but over the sweep of the season. He – you know he’s going to be spending some time in Philadelphia, we’re going to start to understand what his world is like within the world of the militia, but he’s certainly going to interact with Charlie again and – you know and he has a bumpy road ahead for him.

Was there something in Giancarlo Esposito’s betrayal of the cold calculating villain (to stop a frame) in Breaking Bad that you thought would make him a great casting choice for the role of Captain Tom Neville?

Eric Kripke: Well, yeah, only in that Giancarlo is just a world-class actor, and frankly we were shocked that he was willing to partner up with us because, you know we were sort of like – we felt like we were like kind of, “Like, why is such a classy actor want to hang out with such shady people?” And – but, you know obviously I was a – I’m a – I was a huge fan of his performance in Breaking Bad, but I’ve been a fan of his from long before that, and we’re just honored to have him be a part of the show.

And he bring so much heft and depth and emotion and – to Neville, you know, who is not obviously the same character as that character, because you know Neville’s got, you know moments of vulnerability and moments of humanity. And he’s just a really interesting complicated character that Giancarlo makes so much better than what is on the page.

But yeah, and it’s true because I mean he’s the – he’s exactly the type of actor you want to work with because you can write any dialogue and he makes it about five times better than it actually is. And I’m just – like I said, I’m just honored to be working with him. And then on top of that, he’s like the nice – it’s like the government actually has designated him the nicest man in America. He couldn’t be a sweeter, more gracious, more open-hearted collaborative guy, and someone who is that talented and that kind-hearted is just is really one in a million, and I just love working with him.