Warehouse 13 Comic-Con 2009 Panel

Panel participants for the Warehouse 13 (WH13) Comic-Con panel event were writer David Simkins, showrunner Jack Kenny, newest member of the WH13 team – Allison Scagliotti, Saul Rubinek, Joanne Kelly and Eddie McClintock.

Jack Kenny said he’s never seen a show supported by a network like Syfy is supporting this one.

We saw a short preview showing Allison Scagliotti in her new role.

As it’s been hinted, most things are possible within the show, and as if that’s not enough, Artie is going to go up against a former partner.  In other words, Artie will have a Moriarity, making the show darker and better.

The creative team says they use real artifacts to base their stories around and then branch out from there.  They quietly thank Wikipedia and “the Google,” as Kenny calls it.

They say that Saul tends to call the creative team with ideas.

The unique part of this show is that Syfy is looking for a fantasy adventure with WH13 rather than the usual sci-fi type story line.  They want to make stories that are entertaining and not take themselves too seriously in the process.

McClintock and Kelly get along rather well.  The show was screening pairs of actors to check on actor chemistry and they had the “benefit” of hanging together for about 90 minutes in the audition waiting room and got comfortable with each other.

McClintock says he has two little children like chicks chirping for food and he was very nervous for the auditions and Kelly was the calming factor.  At least that’s how it looked to him.

The two characters have a yin-yang kind of relationship.  While Pete follows his gut, Kelly’s character is more rigid and uses her intellect.  They handle things in two very different ways.

Joanne Kelly said they want to have fun, but be grounded in reality and calls this show a procedure-dramedy.

Saul says Artie has a cool office but it’s lonely and now he has a partner in the form of Claudia.

Claudia (Allison Scagliotti) is looking to find her brother.  With the introduction of her character, we have someone that Artie can work with and we also have a punkwood vs steampunk technology environment with these two, now that Claudia brings the punkwood to the Warehouse office.

Saul asked the crowd how many folks in the panel have seen at least 1 episode and everyone raised their hand.  He asked who has seen 3 episodes – everyone.  Jack Kenny cheated.  He asked how has seen all 12?  He raised his own hand.

The senior VP of Syfy, Mark Stern, was there.  Eddie called him up. Eddie asked about a 2nd season, Stern asked the audience and of course the crowd went crazy.

Stern said we need to get the word out because next year, we need to be in Ballroom 20.   Jack kenny said “Mark?  Imagine greater!”

An audience member asked if there were any ideas of a cross-over with Eureka.  They thought it would be fun, but the decision will have to come from Syfy.  (BTW:  Some of the cast of Eureka were present.  I recognized faces, but no names.  Sorry.)

Someone wondered if we will ever see the tea kettle ferret again, but they only said that they hope so.

Someone asked Saul how much of the character is in him.  He said you can’t do 11 hour days making movies or television shows without being yourself.  After a while, writers write for who the actor is.  You can’t do this without that happening.

A Little Insight And History:

Mark Shepard (Battlestar Galactica) will play a Regent.  A regent is one who is in charge of the Warehouse and Mrs. Frederick.

Warehouse 13 is the 13th iteration of the Warehouse.  The Warehouse was started by Alexander The Great.  The Warehouses are located in the nation of the Earth that is in power at the time.  Hence, today, it’s in the U.S..

And of course, at the end of the Warehouse 13 panel, we were hit with that Syfy ad again.  It’s following me everywhere!  Last thing we got was a Eureka ad.