Comic-Con 2009: Dollhouse

Joss Whedon is a prick.

Joss Whedon, master of television, movies, comic books, and the internet, is a self-proclaimed “prick” and gave evidence to prove it during the Whedon/Dollhouse panel at Comic-Con.

1. He is not good at dealing with people because he is too busy playing in the “avatar world” he is living in.

2. He cast Alan Tudyk (Firefly) as the evil Alpha because he has “met him.”

3. He has never seen an episode of Lost because he and his fellow writers (aka “brains in jars”) are too busy making television.

4. The characters you know and love are subject to the whims of fate and physics, as they occasionally decide on storylines by using dartboards with characters and story ideas (such as “has sex,” “is a doll,” “is killed,” and “is wiped”) on them.

5. When Eliza Dushku admitted to their fans that the show did not find its groove until halfway through the season, Whedon said he did not like fans as much as she did and promised that Dollhouse would be okay as long as they do not send anyone to feudal Japan.

5 Things to Know About Season 2 of Dollhouse

1. The events in “Epitaph 1,” the unaired 13^th episode, are real.

The episode did not become obsolete when the show “accidentally forgot to get cancelled.” “Epitaph 1″ showed our heroes and anti-heroes living in a post-Apocalyptic future where massive groups of people are being imprinted against their will and turned into an army of killers, the Reaver-like Butchers.  A ragtag group of survivors, including Mag (Felicia Day), Zone (Zach Ward), and Iris (Adair Tishler), stumble upon the nearly abandoned Dollhouse and soon realize that the imprinting technology began there.

As they go through the previous inhabitants’ memories, we learned, among other things, that Echo (Dushku) began working with Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) and was remembering more than she should and that Topher ‘s (Fran Kranz) scientific breakthrough was what led to the technology going out of control.  He suffered a mental breakdown when he realized what he had done.  Whedon said that we need to question what we thought we saw because what we saw were memories and that the events might have been interpreted differently than what actually occurred.

2. There will be recognizable faces both in front of and behind the cameras.

Mag, Zone, and Tiny Caroline/Iris from “Epitaph 1” will be in the season premiere.  Alexis Denisof (Buffy, Angel) will also guest star in a few episodes, during which time Echo “will take a blade to him.”  They are also trying to finalize Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles) and it has recently been reported that Battlestar Galactica stars Jamie Bamber and Michael Hogan will be appearing early in the season.  Behind the scenes, Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, the creators of Reaper, have been added to the staff of Dollhouse and comics artist John Cassaday will direct one episode this season.

3. The Dolls disfigured by Alpha will not be written out of the show.

The season premiere starts the week after Alpha escapes from Echo.  Whedon suggested that Victor (Enver Gjokaj) “might get better quickly” and Whiskey (Amy Acker), who is unscarred in “Epitaph 1,” will still be coming to terms with the realization that she is a Doll.

4. Dollhouse will continue to deal with social and ethical issues in Season 2.

For instance, a large part of the season will explore the abuse of power, ways people do that, and how manipulation is used to control everything.  The show will also deal with ethical issues, like the possibility that vegetative people could live out their lives as Dolls.

5. There may be another mole in the Dollhouse.

“Worry all the time about everything,” Whedon warned.  “No one can be trusted in Dollhouse.”

Bonus

Fans of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (and “Once More, With Feeling,” the Buffy musical) have reason to be excited, as Whedon hinted that there may be another musical on the way.  He and the other writers loved it too much to let it go.

Panelists: Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, Dichen Lachman, Fran Kranz

Dollhouse returns to Fox on September 25 at 9/8c.

For more on Comic-Con, click here.

For more on Dollhouse, click here.

Photographs courtesy of Poptimal.com and taken by Ayang.