Flash Forward at Comic Con

The Flash Forward Comic Con panel started with Entertainment Weekly writer Jeff Johnson acting as the moderator, introducing Executive Producers Marc Guggenheim (Eli Stone), David S. Goyer (The Dark Knight) and Brannon Braga (Enterprise) to the stage. They, in turn, provided the audience with the first “public glimpse” of the series, which will debut on ABC on September 24 at 8 p.m.

The first two acts were aired and well-received by the audience. The basic premise of the series, loosely based on the Robert Sawyer novel of the same name, depicts a modern day Earth where everyone on the planet suffers a black out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds, seeing a specific moment in their lives: April 20, 2010 at 8 p.m. The aftermath of this massive black out is, as you can imagine, catastrophic: cars have collided, people have drowned, planes have fallen from the sky and destruction reverberates all over the world. Like everyone else, though, the audience in the panel room will have to wait until the series premiere to learn more about this inventive show.

Flash Foward premieres on ABC September 24th.

In the meantime, it should be noted that it is because of Mr. Goyer’s wife that this project truly came to fruition, as she gave him the idea to develop the book into a series since they shared the same passion for the novel; but rather than have the series jump 21 years into the future (as is the time leap in the book), the series will merely see into the future 6 months. And, much like its predecessor, the soon-to-be-ending Lost, this series will feature one flash forward each episode; and will cover three countries in the first three episodes.

The cast that was on hand for the panel included Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), John Cho (Star Trek), Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and newcomer Christine Woods. Since filming was actually taking place during Comic Con, the rest of the cast was otherwise occupied; and the audience learned that filming had been taking place for several weeks prior to the convention.

During the moderator-led question and answer session, much joking was placed at Mr. Fiennes feet since this will be his first appearance on American television in something other than frilly shirts and pantaloons. And Mr. Vance routinely ripped the Executive Producers about wanting to grow old on the show, stating “It’s going to be like Gunsmoke, running for 21 years”.

Unlike the aforementioned series Lost, though, the masterminds behind Flash Forward claim to know the end game, having had time to fully lay out the storylines and story archs for the show. They informed the audience they had the first half written out before the writers’ strike and the remainder completely once the strike came to an end. Mr. Goyer freely stated they “had a lot of time to plan it out.”

As a surprise to the audience, a spoiler reel was aired near the conclusion of the panel, which featured yet another surprise (of sorts): that of Dominic Monaghan’s involvement in the show and his appearance in the panel room. This brought the house down with the audience going crazy over the confirmation that Mr. Monaghan was indeed involved in the show. For those unaware, there had been rampant speculation that he was either returning to Lost for the final season or was to be involved in one of the new fall shows when he appeared in an ABC publicity commercial.

Another surprise was a recorded message from Flash Forward co-star Sonya Walger (Lost), who was unable to attend the convention due to the fact she was getting married. The clip was short but sweet in that costumed crew members (Spiderman, Batman and the like) were walking around in the background. Then as Ms. Walger completed her message, she stood up, removed her bathrobe to reveal she was wearing a Wonder Woman costume and asked for her “damn tiara” as she walked off the set. This, of course, set the entire panel room in raucous laughter and a mad flurry of activity as people attempted to get to the main table due to Mr. Monaghan’s appearance.

You can learn more about Flash Forward by visiting ABC.com.