THE EXORCIST Adds To Season 2 Cast And Visits San Diego Comic-Con
[Featured image The Exorcist San Diego Comic-Con poster courtesy Alfonso Herrera Twitter @ponchohd]
Since FOX gave The Exorcist a surprise renewal for a second season in May, details of who would be joining the cast (or not returning from season one), along with what and where for season two, have been slowly emerging.
Pre-San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) announcements included Star Trek’s John Cho cast as a troubled former mental health professional which was followed the new additions of Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool) and Zuleika Robinson. You may not know the latter by name but have probably seen her on one her many TV credits, from duplicitous Gaia in HBO’s Rome to the mysterious Ilana Verdansky on LOST, and most recently in the Shondaland ABC series Still Star Crossed.
RELATED ~ The Exorcist FOX archives at SciFi4Me – including recap/reviews of every Season One episode
The Cho casting news revealed the location for season two – a group home for troubled children on a remote Pacific Coast island overseen by Andrew Kim (Cho). A former psychologist, Kim is now the father figure to five troubled children; Hildebrand plays the eldest member of Kim’s “family,” Verity, a young woman who “would die for her siblings and Andrew.” FOX describes Robinson’s character Mouse, as “a mysterious figure waging her own private war against the Catholic patriarchy…Mouse takes her duty seriously, but in the end, she’s loyal to only herself.” Could Mouse be an agent of the Washington State branch of the demon-raising Vocare Pulvere?
Although my prediction for season two’s story arc was so far off base it’s not even funny (ok, in retrospect it is pretty funny), I can still hope we haven’t see the last of Maria Walters, Superintendent Jaffey, and the rest of the Vocare Pulvere cabal in Chicago. If one or two members of the Rance family can visit Seattle, why not the richest woman in Chicago or the top cop?
The Exorcist panel at San Diego Comic-Con brought a few more season two clues. The panel discussion featured returning cast members Alfonso Herrera (Father Tomas), Ben Daniels (Father Marcus Keane), and Kurt Egyiawan (Father Bennett), along with newcomers Cho and Hildebrand.
Co-showrunner and executive producer Sean Crouch and series creator Jeremy Slater joined in as well. For fans looking for tea leaves to interpret, Crouch’s comments (or at least what was available on the four minute compilation available from FOX) provide plenty to ruminate on.
Crouch noted that part of the reason for the new location for season two was “to give it that nature look…the greens and the blues that will make it feel very cinematic.” The Pacific Northwest location “opens up the sandbox to be able to play in other horror types. I mean we’ll obviously have that atmospheric psychological horror…But now we also have the nature based horror. A lot of the Japanese horror like Ringu and Dark Waters can sort of influence where we’re going with it this season to give it that big cinematic feel.”
The Exorcist season two premieres Friday, September 29 on FOX.
