build that wall
Liv has a new undead reality in iZombie
In iZombie’s third season finale, the secret of the undead came out as Seattle’s residents were turned en masse via a supposed flu vaccine. The new season finds Liv Moore’s city walled off, renamed New Seattle and the epicentre of mass hysteria. Executive producer and co-showrunner Diane Ruggiero tells Red Alert that the whole scenario is unlike anything they’ve ever done on the series.
“We’re starting three months later,” she reveals. “There’s still some humans stuck in [New Seattle] with the zombies and they’re kind of freaking out. And then there are people outside the wall who are sick and dying that know their salvation is behind that wall. They’re desperate to get in there and they can’t. There’s a lot of anti-zombie hate-mongering and fear. Maybe we can see what this is reference to in the world today?” she laughs.
What does all of this mean for Liv (Rose McIver), who spent the better part of three seasons trying to hide her own brain-eating issues? Ruggiero explains, “One of the biggest changes is that Liv is called upon to be a rebel in New Seattle. It brings out a different side to her character. Before she was protecting herself, or other zombies that she knew, and then humans from zombies. Now she still has that noble, heroic side but also a level of rebellion. She’s out in the crowd accepting who she is.”
That’s plenty for just about anyone to contend with, and that means season four won’t introduce a traditional Big Bad villain like Vaughn Du Clark (Steven Weber) or Carey Gold (Anjali Jay). “There is so much happening with the story that is dramatic and oppressive, that adding another Big Bad would be like a hat on a hat on a dramatic hat,” Ruggiero jokes. “But Blaine (David Anders) is still Blaine. And we have Angus (Robert Knepper), his father, who is a regular.”
iZombie returns to the CW in 2018. The show airs on Netflix in the UK.