EXCLUSIVE: ‘Defiance’ Interviews at SDCC 2014

The coverage for this year’s Comic-Con International isn’t over yet. During the amazing four-day event we were able speak with the cast and crew of Syfy’s Defiance. Executive producer Kevin Murphy and actors Julie Benz, Jaime Murray, and Stephanie Leonidas, who play Amanda Rosewater, Stahma Tarr, and Irisa respectively, were all able to give their own insights on the show’s current season and input on where it may eventually lead.

Jaime Murray and Julie Benz in character

Kevin Murphy, who developed Defiance along with Rockne S. O’Bannon (Farscape), of course, didn’t want to reveal too many of the season’s upcoming big surprises, but did say a beloved character may not make it to season three. He goes on to state that if he kills a character he wants that character’s death to have a “big impact and set up conflict that happens in subsequent seasons.” Although, as of right now Defiance has not been picked up for a third season. To this point, Murphy states he’s remaining “cautiously optimistic.”

In addition to revealing an upcoming character death, Murphy also revealed that there may be a massive attack on the town of Defiance, grander in scale than that of ones seen previously. He also hints that there may be more than seven Votan races. Right now the only known Votan races are the Castithan, Gulanee, Indogene, Irathient, Liberata, Sensoth, and the Volge.

Like Murphy, actors Julie Benz, Jaime Murray, and Stephanie Leonidas were careful not to reveal too many big surprises either, but were able to give us their own theories on where their characters are headed, and did mention a few specific instances coming up. In regards to Stahma, Jaime Murray discussed the amount of mixed feelings her character has and how much more complex those feelings will get before the end of the season. Murray hints at the possibility of Mia Kirshner’s character, Kenya Rosewater, returning to the series. Stahma had poisoned Kenya in the show’s first season, so her reemergence, according to Murray, will cause Stahma to feel a range of emotions from joy and relief to confusion and fear of being discovered.

As for Amanda Rosewater, Julie Benz states that the reemergence of Amanda’s sister would be good for her, but bad for the everyone else. To that point Benz remains appropriately vague. Benz continues to suggest that Amanda’s relationship with Nolan (Grant Bowler) will be “tested.” Their relationship certainly seems on the rocks after the events of the episode “This Woman’s Work”, where Nolan ended up sleeping with Berlin. Benz also promises we’ll see Amanda have a “full-on breakdown” where she rails on Nolan. According to her, scenes like that are what she most enjoys about working on Defiance as she states one of her favorite scenes to work on was the alley scene with Nolan in “Put the Damage On”.

Lastly, in our interview with Stephanie Leonidas, she fills us in on her experience working in alien make-up, the hardships Irisa has faced, and some of her favorite things about her Comic-Con experience. Apparently, she seemed worried at first that her Irathient make-up would feel like she had a lot of “botox” on her face, but she has since been able to act fine with it, which is evident by her commendable performance on the show. As far as Irisa’s hardships are concerned, Leonidas says it’s just going to get harder for her, but Leonidas hopes that she and Nolan will go back to singing Johnny Cash together again soon. Also, according to Leonidas, fans can expect Irisa and Nolan to possibly have an emotionally heart-wrenching scene in this season’s eleventh episode, “Doll Parts”.

Now go ahead and check out our full Comic-Con International interviews below and don’t forget to tune in to Defiance Thursday nights at 8PM ET on Syfy.