***The following interview contains spoilers for the season two finale.***

Tonight, The Ark season two came to a close with the episode “Fortunate.” In the episode, the Ark finally arrives at Trappist, finding a planet a lot like Earth. Everyone on the surface seems very happy at first glance of their new home, but if seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Earlier in the week, co-showrunners and executive producers Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner spoke with SciFi Vision about the end of the season, including the twist with Lane’s death from a few episodes earlier, the decision to split up the group at the end of the finale, the possibility of a season three and what it might look like, and much more.

Watch the full interview or read the transcript below.



SCIFI VISION:   The first thing that I wanted to talk about is Spencer and Ian. Was that something that you had kind of devised from the very beginning that you were planning on doing, or did it just kind of happen? Because obviously, you like Reese, you kept him, but you got rid of Spencer and brought in Ian. I'm just curious how that kind of came about.

JONATHAN GLASSNER:   Yeah, we did plan it from the very beginning of this season. We realized that we had kind of played out Lane's story last season. He went from being the naysayer, you know, “Why are you in charge? This won't work” guy to sort of a hero who saves us. So, when we came back this season, the first thing we always do when we get in the room is say, “Okay, what's this character's arc going to be this season? What's this character's arc? And with Lane, we were like, “What are we going to do new with him? It's kind of a challenge.” So, we decided we were going to kill him. But we didn't want to lose Reese. So, we devised this very elaborate thing that took a lot of setting up and got to where we ended up with it.

SCIFI VISION:   Let me ask you, Dean, were you surprised now where you are compared to where you started out last season at the very beginning of where the show took itself?

DEAN DEVLIN:   It's been such a joy to work with Jonathan Glassner, because he's so imaginative, and he takes things into directions that I wouldn't have thought of. Then, you know, he'll come to me, and he'll say, “Well, what do you think about if we do this?” And half the time I'm like, “I don't know if that's going to work.” And he goes, “No, no, it'll work,” and then he's right, and it's so exciting. Like the coma dream, for instance. I was not a fan of it when I heard the pitch on it. I thought, “Oh, I don't know. I don't know. That could be cheesy.” And it was such a beautiful script, and it was so well-performed and so well directed. Now it's one of my favorite episodes. So yeah, I'm always surprised by the brilliant stuff that Jonathan comes up with. I'm thrilled at the stuff the actors bring to the table every week. So, yeah, I mean, working on the show, it's like opening a present every day.

SCIFI VISION:   I was just going to say about the coma dream. I know we were talking on our podcast, I was glad you did that, because we were kind of worried between Sharon and Ian, where they would go, because they didn't have that time together, and we didn't want to feel cheated. So, that was a way to bring them lots of time together. So, so it worked out.

JONATHAN GLASSNER:   That's exactly why we did it.

SCIFI VISION:   Let me ask you, Jonathan, I had asked you last time about working with your daughter [Samantha] and you talked about her acting, but I'm curious when you're writing for her as a writer, if that make it different or do you really not think anything of it? Because I would feel like, if it was me, I would maybe want to, I don't know, write as many fun scenes as I could to her.

JONATHAN GLASSNER:   I'm actually the opposite. You know, I don't want to be that guy. But what's interesting about the character of Kelly, is it was only supposed to be like a three [episode arc], and the character ended up being so interesting. We kept adding layers to the character that it could, it had to keep going. And I actually, you know, I said in the room several times to the other writers, “To be clear, I'm not doing this to keep Sam on the show, and I hope it doesn't look that way.” And they're all like, “No, we came up with that too.” So, kind of the truth of the matter is it's more the character than it is Sam that's made her character keep going and evolving. Now she's doing a good job with it. If she had done a bad job, we would have killed her off no matter how interesting it was. But you know, it's just evolved in a very strange way. But no, I try not to give her extra stuff that for that very reason, because I'm very self-conscious about it.

SCIFI VISION:   Well, that makes sense. Now it seems like the finale could go either way. It could serve as a series ending. I hope it doesn't. Or it could go as a season finale. I'm assuming, at this point, you don't know anything. Are they waiting for ratings to find out, or have you heard anything about a season three? Is there anything at all you are allowed to say?

DEAN DEVLIN:   We don't know if we're getting another season yet or not. We're very optimistic about it. The fans could not have been better and more supportive and more vocal online. So, we feel really great about that. But, you know, to a large degree, very early on, Jonathan and I talked about what if all of season one and all of season two was the pilot episode and that the series actually begins on season three. That's how we try to leave it at the end of this, the finale of this year. It's like now we've set up that really what the arc is: It's not only a lifeboat; it's really a search and rescue vehicle. That opens up so many doors for us story-wise while continuing our story on the new colony, on the new earth. So, really, we've taken the pilot and stretched it over two seasons to begin our show.

SCIFI VISION:   What was with the decision to split some of the people up the way you did? Because I was especially surprised with two couples you split up. I wasn't expecting that. I mean, I assume if it goes on, hopefully we'll see both sides, but what was behind that decision?

JONATHAN GLASSNER:   Well, the plan is for them to come back and forth, for the ship to come back and forth, with hopefully newly saved people. So, they'll see each other again. Does that answer your question?

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, that answered it. I was just curious.

DEAN DEVLIN:   The truth is, Jonathan likes to write the show into a corner. So, I have to make sure he's back next season.

SCIFI VISION:   Whatever gets you a job. [laughs] Let me ask you quickly. Talk about creating Trappist, because obviously we're finally on - well, I mean, we were briefly [on one before], but now we're finally on a surface where they're going to stay for a while, and it's livable. Talk about creating that environment.

JONATHAN GLASSNER:   Well, I mean, Dean set it up right from the beginning of the series that the ship is designed to break apart and go land on the planet. So, we knew right away what the colony would look like. And, you know, let's be honest, on our budget, it's got to look very earth-like, or we'll never be able to pull it off. So, it is a planet that is very similar to earth in terms of where it is to its sun, gravity, atmosphere, all those things. That's really for production reasons more than anything. And what we were capable of doing visual effects-wise this season, we were able to start using some new technology that enabled us to be able to pull it off as well as I think we did. So, that's really how we designed it more than anything.

SCIFI VISION:   Let me just ask you really quick, Jonathan, I know you obviously worked on the Stargate series back, whenever it was, 17 years ago or whatever, and the technology and even just the genre has changed so much since then, what was it kind of like coming back after that long of a break, how different it was?

JONATHAN GLASSNER:   Well, I mean, that's a two part question. The technology has come so far that we would never be able to do this show back when we did Stargate. It would have cost too much, and just would have been a feature budget every episode. But the other big thing is that Dean and I really both, and he'll tell you this, we really both like to do shows that are kind of in the tone that we did Stargate SG-1 in.

We like the show to have a little lightness to it, some fun, some humor, not be so, I mean, there's some great, really dark sci-fi shows on now, but that's really not what either of us like to write. We like to write something that's just a little bit more of a romp, a little more fun with some humor in it. So, it was a pleasure to come back and kind of write that tone again.

DEAN DEVLIN:   One of our fans wrote on social media that a single episode of The Ark is an entire season of some other show, and I love that, because I think that is true.

SCIFI VISION:   Yeah, that is true. Well, I definitely was a big fan of Stargate, and I'm looking forward to more Leverage and everything else, but I do hope you get a season three. We want to see more. We talk about it on our podcast every week, so you need to come back.

DEAN DEVLIN:   From your mouth to Syfy channel here.