The CW is getting into the undead with a new series based off of the DC Comic ‘iZombie‘ and we’ve got new details and a trailer to share with you. Some fans of the series may be a bit off on how much it has been rumored to have changed from the comic, but the latest news should put into perspective exactly what has changed.
The series will follow a medical student turned zombie named Liv who has taken a job at a Coroner’s Office to gain access to brains in order to keep her humanity. Only, every brain she eats gives her the corpse’s memories and with them now is compelled to help solve a slew of homicide cases to help keep quiet the voices that are now cropping up from the recently deceased.
According to executive producer Rob Thomas:
“We didn’t hue terribly close to the source material. In the comic, there’s a whole monster universe … and we wanted to stay strictly zombie. We really needed a story engine. We wanted a case-of-the-week show. In the comic, the character is a grave digger. By making her an assistant medical examiner and putting her in the morgue, it gave us our case of the week that we wanted.”
So now we know why a few key pieces have changed but one has to ask if that will hold up to audience expectations who are familiar with the source material.
Thomas continued with:
“The center of the show is a zombie you can fall in love with. A zombie you want to date. We were calling the show ZILFs. It helped me a lot that ‘Warm Bodies’ had made it out in the universe and there was an example of a zombie you fall in love with. It gave us the confidence to say a zombie can be a hero of our show.”
Rose McIver who plays Liv on the show added in jokingly that, “I’ve never been more terrified of receiving scripts in my life!”
For a comparison of the leads in his last hit show ‘Veronica Mars’ to the upcoming ‘iZombie’ Thomas says that, “Veronica is hardened. I always wanted us, at our best in those voiceovers, to strive for this very Raymond Chandler-esque character with a hard-boiled and cynical world view. Liv in iZombie is a more naturally softer character. Part of the journey for her is a return to sweetness and light that are worth going on living for. The attitudes are different.”
Could there be a cure for being a zombie popping up on the show that isn’t a headshot? Well, “We wanted to give her some glimmer of hope out there, the possibility that maybe if she keeps plugging away there could be a good future for her. I think we’re going to have fun with that notion of the show way before episode 100.”
You can check out the first look at the upcoming series below.
Visually it looks good but with how far it strays from the source material it will be hard to judge ahead of time. The studio has also released an expanded synopsis which you can read below.
Olivia “Liv” Moore was a rosy-cheeked, disciplined, over-achieving medical resident who had her life path completely mapped out…until the night she attended a party that unexpectedly turned into a zombie feeding frenzy. Now as one of the newly undead, Liv is doing her best to blend in and look as human as possible. Her appearance passes for “Goth,” with shockingly pale skin and nearly white hair, and her demeanor has gone from exuberant to exhausted.
The change in Liv is baffling to her former fiancé, Major, her mother, Eva, and her best friend and roommate, Peyton, who still has the high-energy, Type-A personality that Liv has completely abandoned. Despite her post-traumatic ennui, Liv has devised a clever way to resist her baser urges to devour fresh human brains – she’s taken a job in the Seattle coroner’s office. In this appropriately dead-end job, Liv can secretly snack on the brains of the many Jane and John Doe corpses that make a final stop in the morgue. Despite carefully covering her tracks, Liv’s brilliant but eccentric boss, Dr. Ravi Chakrabarti, discovers her secret and is surprisingly excited about the scientific possibilities. Dr. Ravi even helps Liv in her search for Blaine, the zombie responsible for her current undead status.
Even with her boss’ enthusiasm, Liv remains resigned to an eternity as a zombie without hope or purpose – until she realizes that with every brain she consumes, she retains a portion of that person’s memories. Liv suddenly begins to experience disturbing and often violent visions from the point of view of the murder victims. Much to the surprise of Dr. Ravi and homicide detective Clive Babineaux, Liv often has detailed knowledge of crime scenes and motives that she can’t easily explain. Posing as a psychic, she works with Detective Babineaux to investigate these crimes and discover who is responsible. It’s not the same as being alive again, but at least she can find purpose in her undead existence by helping Clive solve the murders of those who are indeed fully dead.
Do you think that The CW has a solid plan for the series or are they ruining a great property with these changes? Share your thoughts below!
‘iZombie’ is coming to The CW Tuesday, March 17 at 9/8c.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Blastr