BONES: Comic Con Panel

BONES fans were treated to an energetic, fun panel this year after a last minute cancellation last year. On the panel was executive producer Stephen Nathan, Emily Deschanel, and David Boreanaz. We were treated to a video montage of highlights from season 7 (which you can watch below!) and then some very entertaining Q&A with the panel. A lot of the fun was watching Boreanaz and Deschanel interact with each other – their natural chemistry and the strength of their friendship was very obvious.

WARNING – MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!

When asked about the theme for season 8, Nathan said that it will be the “is love enough” season, with cases more bizarre and more difficult than we’ve seen before, which will lead to greater tension between the characters.

Several minutes of discussion focused on the cadaver props for the show. The writers spends tons of time coming up with new and different ways to kill people and present the bodies. Nathan apparently gets great pleasure out of making the corpses as revolting as possible and only once have they cut a scene for being too disgusting. An animated discussion of how to train a snake to crawl out of a body ensued, with Nathan saying that they used an animatronic snake for that scene and Boreanaz insisting that you could train a snake to do whatever if you just had a flute. Boreanaz is very happy to let Deschanel deal with the bodies while he works on getting the info about the case (several times during the panel it wasn’t clear if he was speaking as himself, or as Booth). She said that the bodies never really bothered her until she had her baby, but now they have more of an effect on her. Nathan pointed out that it was very good of her as a vegan to stand over all those bodies, to which she commented “I’m not a cannibal!”.

The moderator asked Boreanaz a question about directing and he would like to direct another episode this season. Directing and acting is difficult, especially if there’s a Flyers game on, and Deschanel commented that he was difficult to work with as well, but then corrected herself, “he’s so much fun to work with as a director! Now, as an actor…”. She was supposed to direct an episode during season 7, but it got delayed and then she was pregnant, so maybe next season.

When pressed more about season 8, Nathan revealed that we will learn more about Booth’s family, especially his mother, as everyone always asks about Booth’s mother. (“I would like to meet my mother”, Boreanaz added.) The Hollywood episode (The Suit on the Set) was fun for them to make because they got to make fun of everything. Nathan had been wanting to make that type of episode for a while. They filmed it on the FOX lot where the show is filmed and had a great time with it.

An audience member asked about Pelant. We will see him in the first episode and throughout season 8 in “ways we won’t expect”. Boreanaz loved the scene in the finale where he got to beat him up and thinks that he could take him “mano-a-mano”. Even better, maybe they could play cards for Bones…

Another audience question brought up Kathy Reich’s books and whether Deschanel and Boreanaz used them as sources for their characters. Deschanel has read some of the books and really likes them. She considers her character on the show kind of a prequel to the Brennan in the books. Nathan pointed out that the show is based more on Kathy Reich’s life than her books, per se. There isn’t a Booth character in the books, so Boreanaz said he didn’t draw from them (he “drew a blank” and it was unclear if he’s ever even read one!)

Apparently Boreanaz thinks Deschanel has the “most beautiful eyes” to look in to and that working with her for so long has been a real blessing (awww!).

They were asked about their favorite undercover personas and of course “Buck and Wanda” take the cake. Boreanaz reminsced about drinking Russian liquor while they were filming the episode set at the circus, which was news to Deschanel. Nathan joked that they might go undercover as ballroom dancers this season, which Boreanaz didn’t seem too thrilled about. Boreanaz started reminiscing about shooting in London. He loved how Booth kept spilling his coffee into the Thames and he doesn’t think that there is any good coffee in London. He remembers filming the kissing scene in front of the London Bridge and they timed it perfectly with the bridge closing and then he blew his line. He was clearly nostalgic for the moment, but Deschanel doesn’t even remember it. She did enjoy being in London, though, as she lived there for a year as a girl.

Baby Christina was discussed. She is played by twins and will continue to be a part of the show and age normally. Rather than being in every episode, she’s going to be “sprinkled” in. Deschanel commented on how smart Christina is and Boreanaz immediately bragged that she gets her smarts from her father.

When asked about Brennan’s dad, Max, and whether he was guilty of what he was charged with, Deschanel commented that Max does bad things for the right reasons. This causes a real moral dilemma for Brennan, but now she’s doing something very similar by running from the law (and Booth!).

They don’t have any plans for episode 150 yet.

In response to an audience question, Boreanaz would be totally game for a Buffy movie and he’s fascinated by all the current interest in vampires, especially those that carry diaries (LOL). He’d love to work with Joss Whedon again and launched into a bang-up impression of an auctioneer, selling off Joss Whedon for a new project to the highest bidder.

There were four “bonus” episodes of BONES filmed this season and they will be inter-spaced throughout season 8. Each one of them is from a different point-of-view. One of them is actually from the perspective of a skull, apparently.

As the panel wrapped up, they talked a bit more about the finale. Deschanel thinks that Booth and Brennan need some more therapy. Where’s Sweets when you need him?

Throughout the panel, Boreanaz kept up a steady stream of funny accents, comments, and general mayhem. it’s hard to appropriately describe it so the hilarity can be appreciated, but hopefully others will have videos of the whole panel available soon. It’s really nice to see two actors that have such great on-screen chemistry have such fabulous off-screen chemistry as well (even if Deschanel had a hard time getting a word in edgewise!).

There’s a lot of other BONES scoop from Comic Con. We weren’t in the press room this year, but you can see some of it on FOX.com

Catch the season premiere of BONES on MON Sept. 17 at 8/7c, on FOX!