photo: thetwocents
pmb@thetwocentscorp.com
You know a panel is going to be good when you get a T-shirt as soon as you walk in the door and that’s exactly what happened with the Leverage panel.
There were five T-shirts to choose from: Mastermind, Hitter, Grifter, Hacker and Hitter. For fans of the show (and about 2,000 showed up at Saturday’s Comic-Con), it’s a huge debate to deciding which shirt is the best suited to the wearer’s personality (Mastermind was a huge hit).
The panel consisted of producer Chris Dowdy, Christian Kane (Eliot), Timothy Hutton (Nate Ford), Beth Riesgraf (Parker), Aldis Hodge (Hardison) and — out of the blue — Wil Wheaton (Chaos). No Gina Bellman (Sophie).
It was fun to watch them all interact because they joked with each other in a manner that made it clear they all really like being together. Riesgraf in particular is much more outgoing than her character and she spun off some very Parker-like lines that had the place in stitches.
First everyone commented on Kane’s singing in the July 18 episode. Turns out he not only sang the song, he co-wrote it as well.
“My album is coming out in October,” he said. “I looked at what I had on the album, then found a song that was right for the show.” He also admitted we still have a lot of Elliot we haven’t seen yet. “He’s a man of many skills. He’s got deep stuff going on there and we don’t know much about his military background yet.”
The moderator asked Riesgraf what Parker would think about Comic-Con, and she had to suppress a few giggles. Not because the question was funny, but because the echo in the room made it difficult for her to hear people on the panel. But she admitted Parker would love the event, if for different reasons than most people in the room.
“She would have a field day picking everyone’s pockets,” Riesgraf said with an arched eyebrow. “She’d fit in well with this crowd. I’ve loved her this season because she’s becoming more colored. “
Would Hardison ever start his own team? Hodge doesn’t think anything like that will be happening soon. “He’s taking his learning points from Nate,” Hodge said. “He’s still trying to figure out their relationship. But in 27 seasons…”
“At least,” said Riesgraf as Parker, “I know he’ll be taking me.”
“In 27 seasons, we’ll be ‘Leverage, She Wrote,’” joked Hutton.
Wheaton will be returning later this season in an episode titled “The Ho Ho, Ho Job.”
“It’s not what you think,” said Wheaton with a raised eyebrow (BTW, Wheaton had moderated The Big Theory panel the day before). “They asked me if I want to be the John stole who stole Christmas. I was delighted to come back.”
“And you all wanted that, right?” said Hodge, encouraging the crowd to cheer. Then Wheaton slipped Hodge a few bucks.
Dowdy mentioned another upcoming episode that will show the team before they became a team. “It’s when they all tried to steal the same thing,” he said. “They all met, but they didn’t know it. “
He also teased another upcoming event. “We get to meet Nate’s dad late this season,” he said. “And we’ll see how Nate became the way he did.”
See Part 2 tomorrow…
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I think you mean Chris Downey, the co-creator and executive producer.
I love these guys. They’re fabulous people.