At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, we got a chance to speak with series stars Rose McIver, Malcolm Goodwin, Rahul Kohli, Robert Buckley and David Anders, as well as executive producers Rob Thomas and Diane Ruggiero-Wright.
Olivia “Liv” Moore was a rosy-cheeked, disciplined, over-achieving medical resident who had her life path completely mapped out…until the night she attended a party that unexpectedly turned into a zombie feeding frenzy. As one of the newly undead, Liv is doing her best to blend in and look as human as possible. Her appearance now passes for “Goth,” with shockingly pale skin and nearly white hair, and her demeanor has gone from exuberant to exhausted. The change in Liv is baffling to her mother, her former fiancé, Major, and her best friend and roommate, Peyton, who still has the high-energy, Type-A personality that Liv has completely abandoned. Despite her post-traumatic ennui, Liv has devised a way to resist her baser urges to devour fresh human brains – she’s taken a job in the Seattle coroner’s office. In this appropriately dead-end job, Liv can secretly snack on the brains of the many Jane and John Doe corpses that make a final stop in the morgue. Despite carefully covering her tracks, Liv’s boss, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, discovers her secret and is surprisingly excited about the scientific possibilities. Even with her boss’ enthusiasm, Liv remains resigned to an eternity without hope or purpose, until she realizes that with every brain she consumes, she retains a portion of that person’s memories. Liv begins to experience visions from the point of view of the murder victims. Much to the surprise of Dr. Ravi and homicide detective Clive Babineaux, Liv often has detailed knowledge of crime scenes and motives that she can’t easily explain. Posing as a psychic, she works with Detective Babineaux to investigate these crimes and discover who is responsible. It’s not the same as being alive again, but at least Liv can find purpose in her undead existence by helping Clive solve the murders of those who are indeed fully dead.
The series stars Rose McIver (“Masters of Sex,” “Once Upon a Time”) as Liv, Malcolm Goodwin (“Breakout Kings”) as Clive Babineaux, newcomer Rahul Kohli as Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, Robert Buckley (“One Tree Hill”) as Major Lilywhite, Alexandra Krosney (“Last Man Standing”) as Peyton Charles, David Anders (“Once Upon a Time,” “The Vampire Diaries”) as Blaine DeBeers and Nora Dunn (“Entourage,” “Saturday Night Live”) as Eva Moore.
Based upon characters created by Chris Roberson and Michael Allred, and published by DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint, iZOMBIE is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Spondoolie Productions and Warner Bros. Television, with executive producers Rob Thomas (“Veronica Mars,” “Party Down,” “Cupid”), Diane Ruggiero-Wright (“Veronica Mars,” “The Ex List,” “That’s Life”), Danielle Stokdyk (“Veronica Mars,” “Party Down,” “Cupid”) and Dan Etheridge (“The Carrie Diaries,” “Veronica Mars,” “Party Down”). The pilot was directed by Rob Thomas.
