Of this year’s crop of new series, two of the most anticipated are on The CW – Ringer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, and The Secret Circle from many of the minds that brought us The Vampire Diaries. Like TVD, The Secret Circle is based on a series of novels by author L.J. Smith and is executive produced by legendary writer Kevin Williamson (Dawson’s Creek, Scream).
At Comic-Con, KSiteTV was among a group of writers who were able to talk to the Secret Circle cast and crew, and we’re going to start with Williamson himself, for a little bit of an idea of what The Secret Circle will be. The show premieres September 15 on The CW, and stars fan favorites including Brittany Robertson (Life Unexpected), Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), and Gale Harold (Queer As Folk).
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“There are three different generations [of witches],” Williamson explains about the show’s multi-generational aspect. “You’ve got your young circle – this brand new circle, so to speak – and then you have the next level, where Natasha Henstridge plays Dawn and Gale Harold plays Charles, and those are the parents. That’s one circle. Then you’ve got Jane [Ashley Crow], the grandmother, who is sort of the elder circle. It’s really interesting,” he says.
“I’m very fascinated by the idea of the rules of [witchcraft]. What are their powers? What can they do? How can they do them? What are the laws of being a witch? Where does it date back to? And we all thought it would be really interesting if the elders, in some sense, don’t really believe there’s a place for witches anymore. And of course, others feel differently,” he teases. “What we’re seeing is the rebirth of the witches in Chance Harbor. It’s sort of an uprising, and an awakening of witches.”
“Mythology shows are so hard to develop and create, but it’s also what what makes it challenging and exciting,” Williamson says of the notion of revisiting a genre that he has handled so well with The Vampire Diaries. “The commonality is probably L.J. Smith and me, and the idea that I really just like writing emotional horror. This is going to be very, very emotional. Hopefully there will be adrenaline, where there will be emotional relationships where you’re on the edge of your seat, hopefully, and watching all of the scary stuff happen, but at the same time, you cry at the end. That’s my game. I want emotion. I want to pull all of the emotion out of it. In terms of the differences, this is not as violent of a show. Vampire Diaries, as emotional as it is and epic as it is with the love story, there’s something very masculine about it. It has vampires, and there are werewolves, and you’re ripping heads off. You’re ripping hearts out. This is witchcraft, and it’s not so in your face violent like that. In the pilot, [someone] drowns a man with just merely describing it. It’s just a different type of horror. It’s a different type of menace.”
But could The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle exist in the same world? “We’re playing with the idea that this is a companion piece, and L.J. Smith did not see the two books as a crossover, so we’re seeing them as two separate worlds. Chance Harbor does not live in the same universe that Mystic Falls does,” he says.
Williamson knew of series lead Britt Robertson from his long friendship with Liz Tigelaar, who created and produced Life Unexpected for The CW. “We’ve been friends, and I’ve been a big fan of hers, and I just worship the ground she walks on,” Kevin explains about Tigelaar. Seeing Robertson on LUX made Williamson wish he had her on a show, and then when Scream 4 came around, the producer hoped to get her to play a role. Though Robertson did appear, it wasn’t as big of a role as it could have been. “hey were still shooting [LUX], so she could only do a small part. They had to fly her out for a day. We couldn’t really use her as much as I wanted to,” he explains. When Life Unexpected ended, Williamson had kept Robertson in mind – and it was a sentiment that was shared with the network, solving one of the biggest challenges – finding the perfect Cassie Blake. Interestingly, Thomas Dekker also auditioned for Scream 4. “I’ve been wanting to work with him forever, and I wanted him to be in Scream 4 too. His audition was amazing for Scream 4,” Williamson reveals.
Viewers should like The Secret Circle, and the subject matter seems right up Williamson’s alley as well. “I like scary. I like the occult. I like Rosemary’s Baby. I like the devil worship. I like the voodoo. I like the stuff that just goes batsh!t crazy. And the challenge will be, how can I infuse that into witchcraft and make it really scary?” he says.
“I want the show to be scary. That’s my biggest thing. And in the same breath, I also want it to be magical, and lovely, and all that romance. I want to have my cake and eat it too. Hopefully I can do it. We’ll see,” he teases.
The Secret Circle premieres on September 15. Read our Secret Circle coverage here at KSiteTV, come back to the site later this week for interviews, and be one of the first to join our Secret Circle forum discussion!
