iZombie: Comic Con Press Room Highlights

Comic book recreations are everywhere these days and thankfully Rob Thomas, the genius behind Veronica Mars, is jumping into the fray. Teaming again with Diane Ruggiero, Rob is bringing iZombie to The CW this fall.

The series follows Olivia Moore (Rose McIver), a med student turned zombie, as she tries to cope with her newfound deadness. She ends up working at the morgue where she shares her secret with Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) the medical examiner.

Olivia figures out that eating the brains of a cadaver lets her retain their memories. She uses this gift to partner with Clive Babinaux (Malcolm Goodwin) a detective with the Seattle police department. With her visions, cleverly disguised as psychic abilities, she helps him solve crimes.

Rounding out the ridiculously good looking cast will be Olivia’s ex-fiancé Major Lilywhite (Robert Buckley) and resident charmer/drug dealer Blaine (David Anders).

I had the pleasure of speaking with the cast/creators at Comic Con this year where they shared their excitement over this project.

David Anders said choosing the role was a no brainer – he then paused to make sure we got the joke. I did make sure this was not the kind of comedy we would be getting from him in iZombie. He assured us it wasn’t.

Robert Buckely shared that he was also immediately drawn to the project. He has always read comics, although now that he is in his 30’s he calls them graphic novels. Being part of a DC property is inching him ever closer to playing a super hero.

Diane Ruggiero told a charming story about Robert’s audition and how she couldn’t stop giggling due to Robert’s hotness. I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t agree with that.

Rob Thomas shared that he is optimistic that there is room for one more zombie show and that they did stray a bit from the original comic to make this a more case of the week show.

Rose McIver compared her character to a cross between Buffy and Angel. She is a hero in the sense that she is trying to do the right thing and solve these cases but at the same time she is a zombie and that has its own set of issues.

Rahul Kohli & Malcolm Goodwin chatted with us as a pair. They expressed how great it was that one of their characters knows what is going on with Rose and the other has no idea. It makes for some fun interactions between the two.

iZombie airs tomorrow March 17th  on The CW