FlashForward

As previously announced, James Callis is coming to FlashForward in a "big role."

Now, in an interview with Zap2It, Sonya Walger (Olivia Benford) also describes the character Callis plays as a "strange guy." She also goes into detail about a plot development to come:

"[Olivia]'s roped into the FBI, she starts helping them with the investigation," Walger said. "Then she meets a strange guy who knows an awful lot about her future. There's this man who's had multiple flashforwards. So he becomes a big part of unlocking what's happened, both in global terms and in terms of Olivia."

How/why does this man have multiple flashforwards? The actress wouldn't say.

But Walger did dish a bit about the status of her marriage.

"Mark starts really disappearing down the rabbit hole investigating the Mosaic... so their marriage is not in a good way," she said. "There's trouble and strife at home."

FlashForward returns with a new episode on March 18.

On March 18, FlashForward returns to ABC.

As one of the drama's stars, Courtney B. Vance knows exactly what viewers who tune in on that date are seeking. The man that plays Stan Wedeck told TV Guide Magazine:

“They want some ‘show me something’ and they’re going to see it."

Does that mean aspects of the future visions will start coming true?

“The writers have kind of carte blanche based on the situation having the flashforwards and us not knowing too much about our lives at this point," he said. "They can go wherever they want to go... but we’re dovetailing toward [April 29]. People want to know what’s going to happen."

Regarding specific spoilers for his character, Vance teased:

“I’m trying to let the president know something is about to go down. He’s my best friend, I’m not going to go against my best friend. And so it’ll be seen whether or not he listens and it just plays out. That’s mostly what I’m excited about."

As someone that has watched FlashForward since day one, here's what I'm excited about: the show actually choosing a direction and sticking with it.

Also, the hopeful, bloody death of Mark Benford.

FlashForward doesn't return to ABC until March 4.

This leaves viewers will plenty of time to debate who took Lloyd, whether Mark will kill Demetri and many other pressing storylines.

But co-creator David Goyer spoke to Zap2It this week and supplied a few answers to a series of burning questions. What can viewers expect when the show returns this spring? Goyer confirmed the following:

• Lloyd and Simon definitely had something to do with the global blackout;
• "Simon is pretty much on the Mosaic team" going forward;
• There are three "massively great twists" on the first two episodes back;
• We'll find out the identity of Suspect Zero;
• We'll be seeing more of D. Gibbons.

In conclusion, Goyers says there will be "reveals that will change the whole playing field."

Consider us intrigued. The final FlashForward episode of 2009 definitely hooked us on this show. What are the main questions you wish to see answered when it returns?

There was great news for fans of FlashForward last week: the drama delivered a suspenseful, well-paced, intriguing episode for the first time in a long time.

The installment, however, was quickly followed by bad news: the series won't return with new episodes until March.

Why the delay? Where does the show go from here? Producer/writer David Goyer spoke with Entertainment Weekly about it all, revealing a few FlashForward spoilers along the way. Excerpts follow...

On the new schedule: "We originally planned to come back in January, but about three weeks ago we sat down with ABC scheduling and looked at what our programming schedule would be like. And I think on serialized show like 24, Lost, and Prison Break the most important thing is to air consecutive episodes without repeats or preemptions... We’d rather bite the bullet, come back in March, and air all 13 episodes consecutively without preemptions."

On the second half of the season: "We feel like we have all the chess pieces on the board and now we can just knock the dominos over and watch them fall in interesting ways. I kind of feel like we did when we got into working on The Dark Knight after finishing Batman Begins: we got done with the origin story, we don’t have to do that anymore, we can now hit the ground running."

On upcoming reveals: "We’ve only seen part of Mark’s flash-forward so far, but when we come back in episode 11, you’ll see all of it. And you’re also going to find out pretty early on when we come back who Suspect Zero is."

You can read the full interview at EW.com.

We really want to like FlashForward.

With Lost preparing its final season, we need another drama to fascinate, confuse and entertain us every week. Hyped as such, FlashForward has been stuck in neutral since a great series premiere.

Almost nothing happens each week, the lead character is a bore and the show doesn't seem to have any idea what it's trying to accomplish. Where's the suspense? The intrigue? The shocking developments? According to producers Jessika Borsiczky and David S. Goyer, they're all coming.

In an interview with TV Guide Magazine, these showrunners delved into a number of topics and told viewers that things are about to pick up, in a major way...

Goyer, on Mark's future vision: Goyer There may be another reason why Mark drinks that has nothing to do with Lloyd or Olivia. And it may be a much more interesting reason. But we won’t explore that until the second half of the season.

Goyer, on Simon: Simon is gray for now, but we learn exactly what he knows on December 3. What’s important is how he and Lloyd differ on their philosophies regarding the flash-forwards... Simon has new information about Somalia and the crow die-off there.

Borsiczky, on Agent Cho's fate: We get crucial information [on December 3] about his murder that radically alters our perspective of his future. We’ve seen already that the future can be changed, but Demetri’s question will be: How difficult is it to change it, and if one person’s future changes, does everyone’s change?

Goyer, on Janis' baby daddy: There’s more than one potential candidate. In fact, there’s still debate among the show’s writers on this question.

Christine Woods plays Janis on FlashForward.

A couple weeks ago, the character was gunned down on the street and we surmised that it would help shake the series up if Janis died, thereby proving that not all future visions come true.

Janis is alive and almost fully well, though - but her co-worker Al jumped to his death last week. How will this affect the show? Woods spoke to TV Guide about that storyline and more:

On the fallout of Al's death: "In terms of the flashforward and changing the future, he gave us a lot of hope. It's sad in a sense that he's gone, but now things could possibly change."

On the return of Janis: "She'll be back this week. She is back at work, business as usual. She's a little taken aback by what's happened with Al. I think that when you almost die, you question a lot about: 'Am I in the right job? Do I have the right life choices? Am I doing the right things with my life?' She questions, but she stays at work."

On Lloyd and Simon: They're the delicious center of the cookie but you see a lot more of them coming up. [Fans will] feel satisfied with how much you get to know them in the next few episodes.

On FlashForward spoilers: "We pump them for information constantly. I think sometimes they just lie to us to put us off the scent a little bit."

On this week's episode of FlashForward, viewers bid farewell to Al and said hello Blue Hand associate Jeff Slingerland (Callum Keith Rennie).

The latter won't be the final new character introduced on the series, not by a long shot, says creator David S. Goyer. He told MTV:

"We're introducing quite a few new characters down the line. We have already written [the Somalian boy from episode three] as an adult. We're hoping to have a certain actor play him. We haven't nailed it down yet, but we're crossing our fingers."

Goyer also hinted that Michael K. Williams (Omar from The Wire) would take on that adult role, which would be incredible.

Then there's Miles Fogel a new addition to be played by Michael Ealy.

"He effectively becomes a series regular with [episode ten]," Goyer said of Fogel.

Goyer also confirmed that Slingerland would turn up a couple more times this season; and that episode nine will take Bryce to Japan (as hinted at last night).

"That's the subject of episode nine, which is almost entirely his episode," said Goyer. "We introduce another of our cast members in that one — her name is Keiko. She's from Japan, and I can't say too much more about who she is, but she's involved in Bryce's story."

One major problem we've had so far on FlashForward is the one-dimensional characters on the show.

Joseph Fiennes' Mark Benford is incredibly stuff; Courtney B. Vance's Stan Wedeck is over-the-top and not believable as a boss.

But we've loved Sonya Walger's portrayal of Olivia Benford from the beginning, as the talented actress actually makes us feel Olivia's pain as she struggles with the possibility that she'll have an affair with Lloyd Simcoe.

In an interview with Zap2It this week, Walger gets us excited for tonight's episode, which delves deeply into her vision and storyline. She says:

"It's a big episode. It's one where an awful lot of what she's been battling against really comes to a head."

Other excerpts from the article:

On playing a character that has seen her future: I feel like there's an enormous amount of fierce determination not to let the flash-forwards happen. I actually think Olivia's not that confused - I think she's just stubborn. She's not even countenancing the alternative. I think in episode four, she had to really face losing [a patient's] life or giving up her -- what would be the word? - her loyalty to Mark and everything ... she chose his life, but that was only when the odds became that extreme.

On a confrontation with Mark: I think Olivia is justifiably outraged that she's being punished for a crime she hasn't committed, and all the time, Mark has had this information about his flash-forward that he hasn't shared with her. I think the inequity of that is justifiably really irritating to her.

Every week, our staff recaps and reviews the latest FlashForward episode. Come back tomorrow morning and see what we have to say on "Scary Monsters and Super Creeps."

Dominic Monaghan made his long-awaited debut on FlashForward last week.

The former Lost star shocked viewers when he appeared as Simon, spoke to Lloyd over the phone and seemed to confirm that this pair played a significant role in the global blackout.

As for what's to come on the popular ABC series, Monaghan told E! News he's currently shooting episode 11 and:

"We're just gonna go a little further and further down the rabbit hole, and then as we get closer and closer to the finale, things will start to come back together... I like playing characters that are messed up. And that seems to be where we're going with Simon."

Sources say Monagha's character will be featured promiently on the October 29 episode of FlashForward.

She's Olivia on FlashForward.

She's Penny on Lost.

When it comes to mythology-heavy dramas, Sonya Walger is an expert. In a new interview with TV Guide, she speaks on each show, teasing fans with a possible return to the latter; and with more about her vision on the former...

On Olivia's flash forward: In the flash-forward, the bit that you have seen is that Lloyd gets up from the bed and gets a text message from someone. The person he gets a text message from is very, very unexpected.

On what's ahead for Olivia: I think it's completely fascinating that just the ghost of this might be what undoes their marriage, or it might be what strengthens them and keeps them together. It might be the tension of it alone [that] drives Mark to drink... It may well be that they get to a breaking point and then say, 'No, this isn't happening to us. We're going to make this work.'

On whether Penny should die: Are you saying in a sacrificial way, Penny needs to die? I hope not because Penny's so great. There would be mass outcry, but you know what, they killed off Charlie, so anything can happen. I feel like her dad should be the one to bite it. I am not kidding.

Lost returns to ABC in January; while FlashForward airs a new episode tonight. For more on it, as well as what else is to come this season, browse through a few show spoilers.