Things We’ll See More Of In iZombie Season 4

Rose McIver

With zombies officially outed and a wall being built around the city of Seattle, expect Season 4 of CW’s iZombie to take place on a slightly grander scale. While the cast is generally still in the dark about what is to come, Rose McIver (Olivia/Liv Moore), David Anders (Blaine DeBeers), Robert Buckley (Major Lilywhite), Aly Michalka (Peyton Charles), Rahul Kohli (Ravi Chakrabarti), and Malcolm Goodwin (Detective Clive Babineaux) along with show co-creator Diane Ruggerio-Wright (Rob Thomas was out sick) sat down to chat in the San Diego Comic Con press room about what they do know (or can speculate on) and give some idea of what we will see more of in iZombie Season 4.

More Robert Knepper

The big announcement this year is the addition of Robert Knepper to the cast as a series regular. Fans know Knepper as Angus DeBeers, Blaine’s cold hearted and now zombiefied father. Aly Michalka (Peyton) gave us a clue as to where that character will go hinting that Agnus becomes a fanatical religious zombie leader, but last we saw him, he was at the bottom of the well. David Anders (Blaine) suggested that perhaps this won’t last for long when he said, “It would be crazy if we were paying Robert Knepper Robert Knepper money to be a regular just to shoot down a well so you know he’s getting out.”

More Politics, More realism?

Everyone had something to say about the changing political landscape in Season 4:

“There is very much a zombie vs human type of scenario happening here and you’re either on one team or the other.” Aly Michalka (Peyton)

“Pretty early on we discover that there are extreme factions in both the human and zombie groups.” – Rose McIver (Liv)

 “There’s illegal immigration going on, there’s people sneaking in and out, there’s capital punishment for zombies, there’s a new detective, there’s zombie crimes and human crimes. I think it’s going to change a hell of a lot.” – Rahul Kohli (Ravi)

With the construction of the wall and different ideologies about how zombies should be treated both socially and politically, Michalka suggested that we might see “characters becoming more empowered and impassioned in what they believe in.” McIver, for example, suggested that Liv is going to be more of a rebel, whereas Robert Buckley (Major) said that Major will be all in with Fillmore Graves. This may put characters at odds as they struggle to both understand and integrate with those who have alternative beliefs.

If this all sounds a bit too familiar, we might conclude that on the surface, the zombie outbreak takes the show further from the world we live in, but if you dig a little deeper, parallels between the show and contemporary life feel more real than ever.

A More Powerful Peyton

At the center of the political struggle between humans and zombies will be Peyton who is put in somewhat of a unique place as many humans attempt to leave the city. As Michalka explained, “She was just an assistant DA and she’s now kind of forced into this position [of right hand to the Mayor and prosecutor] because so many people have left or scattered about the US and away from Seattle…It leaves her in this crisis of well, somebody needs to prosecute these zombie vs human murders and you’re kind of the only one around so the job’s yours now.”

And Peyton may be uniquely qualified to handle these human vs zombie situations as she has the experience and understanding of zombie issues due to her relationship with best friend, Liv. “I think Peyton knows…she is a human, so she sympathizes with the people out there who are having a hard time accepting the zombies, but she’s also super aware of how these zombies are being segregated, treated when some of them are not violent, are not acting out, are not killing innocent humans for brains, but that they need to be fed.”

More Brains (Hockey Goon! Finally!)

While the general chaos and enlightenment to Liv’s condition may bring into question many of the cases that Liv and Detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) have worked on over the years, the dynamic duo will still be solving murders using Liv’s abilities to gain insights into the victim’s lives by consuming their brains. As far as what brains we might see Liv consume, Diane Ruggerio-Wright finally gets her wish of a hockey goon brain. We were also teased with a Seattle Seahawks fan brain and a stuntwoman brain.

More Human/Zombie Dating

Of course there will be the possibilities of Peyton/Ravi and Liv/Major pairings, but the really interesting dating scenario is going to the human/zombie paring of Clive and Agent Dale Bozzio (Jessica Harmon); the later of whom recently joined the zombie ranks. As Goodwin commented, “He has to deal with that reality and he has to deal with the fact that his girlfriend, she’s a zombie…I think it’s going to be fun to explore that.” When asked to give Goodwin some zombie dating tips, Buckley (whose character had dated a zombie), responded with “cheap dinner dates.”

As for something we will NOT see more of in Season 4: a hulked-out Ravi.

While we will find out Ravi’s fate in episode 1, it will not be the wish Kohli had for his character. He told the story, “I pitched the first TV show I ever got into as a kid. Me and my dad would watch The Incredible Hulk, so I was trying to whisper in Diane and Rob’s ear that once I was scratched, what if he doesn’t become a zombie but he’s made something else, like a hulk…He’s a beast, a monster and then it dies down. And they were like, no.”