Three Major Changes Coming This Season on ‘Extant’
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you! The summer robots-and-aliens series Extant is back tonight, starring Oscar winner Halle Berry as frenzied astronaut Molly Woods. Creator Mickey Fisher fills us in on three big changes.
1. Let’s get back down to Earth. After last season’s reveal that there’s a crazy alien virus in outer space—plus the explosion of the Seraphim space station—Extant will be sticking to terra firma. “It makes no sense that anyone in their right mind would be rushing to get back out there,” Fisher says. The series has a new ominous organization, the Global Security Commission, headed by Gen. Tobias Shepherd (The Walking Dead’s David Morrissey), which is in charge of threat assessment. “They protect the planet from pandemics, asteroids and bioterrorism,” says Fisher. “But how do you stop an alien invasion? The GSC is faced with something there really is no plan for.”
2. Mother knows best…even on drugs. Season 2 jumps six months forward to find Molly solidly medicated at a recovery center with her mental stability in question. “She becomes aware of a string of strange deaths in the outside world and suspects they’re connected to her half-alien son, who is on the loose,” says Fisher. “But she’s having a hard time getting anybody on her side.” That’s not Molly’s only matriarchal woe: Her robot son, Ethan (Pierce Gagnon), has been confiscated by authorities.
3. One heartthrob out, one heartthrob in. Molly’s husband, John (Goran Visnjic), will exit the series in a shocking way. Enter JD Richter (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a seen-it-all cop who is assigned to one of the murder cases that has caught Molly’s attention. “People lie to JD on a daily basis, so he has a highly tuned bulls–t meter,” says Fisher. “There’s just enough about the information he gets from Molly that’s correct, and it hooks him. He needs her help, and she’s a woman with nothing left to lose. She’s in warrior mode!”
Extant, Season premiere Wednesday, July 1, 10/9c, CBS
