Comic Con: Legend of the Seeker

I didn’t really expect Comic Con’s Legend of the Seeker panel to be particularly crowded or difficult to get into. After all, the show is syndicated, airs on a Saturday evening, and only one other person I know has ever heard of it (shout-out: Whitney). But after seeing how quickly the line formed for this panel on Thursday afternoon, I jumped into it an hour and a half early, and was fortunate to make it inside.

Luckily, I was flying solo on this one and was able to score a seat fairly close to the stage, since people always seem to leave those lone single seats between them…god forbid they should be polite and move into the center. But it worked out well for me, so no complaints.

The panel consisted of some producers (no Sam Raimi though), the actor Bruce Spence, who plays the character Zed, a scene chewing Wizard, and author Terry Goodkind, upon whose books the series is based (the Sword of Truth books, in case you are curious).

Actor Bruce Spence and author Terry Goodkind

Kicking things off was some news on the second season: it would consist of a full 22 episode order and would premiere on November 7, 2009. The main characters, Richard, Kaylan, and Zed, would come to the realization that their destruction of the evil overlord, Darkan Rahl, comes with a price, as they have managed to unleash something even more powerful and have created cracks between our world and the Keeper’s (i.e. the Underworld).

For those of you with no idea what I am talking about, no worries, the first season DVD will be released on October 13, 2009, so you can catch up.

Most of the fan questions were for Terry Goodkind, who made it clear he has nothing to do with the show. While he finds it difficult to see the changes that are made to his characters and plots, he understands that television is a different medium and is happy that his characters have seen more mainstream exposure from the show. Really, it seemed like the only reason he was even there was to plug his new book (a non-supernatural thriller available August 18, 2009) and to mollify fans who are pissed about some of the changes from the books.

The big news of the panel was that Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia on Buffy and Angel) would be guest-starring in an upcoming episode as a Mord-Sith, a dominatrix-like character who wears nothing but leather, for those of you not familiar with the books and show. So, yay for Joss alums finding work! Also, the Mord-Sith character, Cara, would be joining the trio, as she does in the books, so that’s good news for Terry Goodkind fans.

Example: Mord-Sith

It was a little disappointing to not have the two main stars of the show at the panel, but since they film in New Zealand it’s a bit of a hike. From the footage we saw and the news we were given, it seems like the second season is shaping up pretty well, and will hopefully be less uneven than the first, which definitely took some time to finds it’s footing, but really took off after the episode, Denna.