Rueben's Ramblings

Yvonne Strahovski and Zachary Levi (Photo Credit: Jennifer Schadel)

One of the best panels that I was able to attend at last month’s Comic Con in San Diego was the (presumed) last time the cast and creative minds behind the NBC series Chuck would be taking the stage as a collective group.

It was a bittersweet moment to see nearly the entire cast – except for an absent Sarah Lancaster (bummer!) – and Executive Producer Chris Fedak take the stage after another hysterical video presentation of Awesome training Morgan to deal with now being the holder of the intersect.

Joshua Gomez (Photo Credit: Rueben)

To the resounding sound of Zachary Levi as Chuck stating, “we’re doomed” in reference to Morgan being the intersect, the video came to an end with the cast being individually introduced to the stage to thunderous applause by the over-capacity audience.

The panel consisted of Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Scott Krinsky (Jeff Barnes), Vik Sahay (Lester Patel), Ryan McPartlin (Devon “Captain Awesome” Woodcomb), Adam Baldwin (John Casey), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah Walker), Zachary Levi (Chuck Bartowski), Joshua Gomez (Morgan Grimes) and Executive Producer Chris Fedak.

Adam Baldwin (Phot Credit: Rueben)

Like I said in one of my other Comic Con reports, a picture says a thousand words, so I will be providing a number of pictures from the panel and press room for folks to enjoy and will share some of thegreat tidbits from the panel, including the following:

• When asked what having this final season means to him, Zachary said, “We get to say goodbye to you”;

• When asked about Morgan now being the intersect Joshua said “holy crap”;

• When asked if he could share any spoilers for the final season, EP Chris Fedak shared that there will be a romantic interest for Casey – which was revealed a few weeks later to be actress Carrie-Anne Moss; Mark Hamil from Star Wars fame will be the first villain of the final season; the team (Chuck, Sarah, Casey and Morgan) will run afoul of people they ‘worked with’ in the past and it may not always end pretty with those people; General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) will be back; he would love to have Linda Hamilton back on the show; he would love to do an episode where Chuck actually goes to Comic Con since there has been a poster for the event in Chuck’s room since the beginning of the show and he shared that “someone might not survive this season”;

• When asked what Chuck will do without the “Chuck Fu” (aka the intersect), Zachary shared that, “Chuck has to be far greater and be a real spy now”;

• When asked if Awesome would be getting back into Chuck’s spy world, Ryan said that he would be, but now “with Clara (he and Ellie’s little baby) the stakes are pretty high”;

• Scott shared that, “this is the season where there (will be) a war between Jeff and Lester;

• Yvonne joked with both Zach and Joshua about the faces they make when they “flash” (aka get information from the intersect in their brains) that had the audience laughing heartedly;

Ryan McPartlin (Photo Credit: Jennifer Schadel)

• When asked by an audience member who would win – Casey or Jayne (the character Adam played in the short-lived Firefly series), he answered, “this is a Chuck panel so Casey would win” and,

• When asked what his favorite memory is from Comic Con, Zach shared it was the first time Chuck was there for a panel back in 2007 before the show debuted; the pilot episode was played to a packed room (one that was much smaller than the room this year’s panel was held in) and he loved how the fans were supportive even then, giving the show a standing ovation

Each of the cast had a chance to say how they think the final season of Chuck will end and here are their answers:

Zachary: “Awesomely!”
Joshua: “I don’t (think it will end).”
Yvonne: “I don’t have a say in things so…”
Adam: First he joked it would end with the death of Vik Sahay (Lester), but then he turned serious and said, “I’m still not convinced it will end this year”.
Ryan: He believes there will be a “feature trilogy ahead”.
Vik: (It will) go out with a glorious death, preferably in slow-mo”.
Scott: He stated he thinks there will be a “mini Jeffster created.”
Mark: “It (will) end funny”.

Mark Christopher Lawrence, Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay (Photo Credit: Rueben)

Before the panel came to a close it was very touching to see Zach get a little emotional because this was the last panel they would be doing for Chuck at Comic Con and he shared whole-heartedly how appreciative he and the entire cast are for fans’ continual support all these years. And with those kind words and lots of waves to the audience, the Last Stand for Chuck came to a close.

Chuck will be back for its fifth and final season starting on its new night Friday, October 21 at 8 PM.