Seems as though The Following's Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea) will survive the vicious knife attack that occurred in the season finale. The in-demand actress has inked a deal to return to the Fox thriller for Season 2. Confirming her eleventh hour contract renewal, Zea says the deal nearly didn't happen. "My concern, and [series creator] Kevin Williamson's concern, was always, is there more story to tell with Claire? And we both discovered that maybe there wasn't," Zea says.
As a result, the character was slated to be killed off. But according to sources, that decision did not sit well with Fox execs, who feared The Following would lose followers with its leading lady cut from the cast.
Hoping to maintain some of the cliffhanger's mystery, Zea won't say just how long her return will last — meaning it could be a dramatic death scene or the start of an exciting new story arc. Were it to be the latter scenario, Zea feels strongly that Claire would need to undergo a transformation from damsel in distress. "I feel like what would need to happen would be a change to her DNA," says Zea, who joins the cast of CBS's Under the Dome next month. "In other words, she might have to break bad a little bit. Although I don't know if anyone besides me would want that."
Source: TV Guide
As a result, the character was slated to be killed off. But according to sources, that decision did not sit well with Fox execs, who feared The Following would lose followers with its leading lady cut from the cast.
Hoping to maintain some of the cliffhanger's mystery, Zea won't say just how long her return will last — meaning it could be a dramatic death scene or the start of an exciting new story arc. Were it to be the latter scenario, Zea feels strongly that Claire would need to undergo a transformation from damsel in distress. "I feel like what would need to happen would be a change to her DNA," says Zea, who joins the cast of CBS's Under the Dome next month. "In other words, she might have to break bad a little bit. Although I don't know if anyone besides me would want that."
Source: TV Guide
I for one do not want to see Claire back, not anything against the actress. If The Following cannot kill off it's main people, then it lacks tension. Since it already has a dismal record of allowing the police to actually be smart, they need all the tension they can get.
ReplyDeleteReally??? what else will they tell about claire....I wanted her to die for such a long time. and why did they give us such an ending to S1 if they're both gonna live? Kevin's awesome...FOX is destroying the show...who would stop watching FOR CLAIRE???????
ReplyDeleteSo that girl was alone in the roof with both of them with a knife in her hand... And she couldn't kill either of them? Meh.
ReplyDeleteWell it will be the first time the killers have been shown as incompetent as the FBI so that's a plus. I actually wouldn't have minded if she killed both Claire and Ryan and confirm Joe to be dead. Then the next season we could have made it Mike going after Emma and rounded up the rest of the cult. Season 3 - different serial killer and different cops. I think it would be interesting to always having a new season-long case.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad she's back - she was one of the best female leads of the entire season
ReplyDeleteWell aslong as they bring back Joe Carroll-Otherwise not worth Viewing
ReplyDeletePredictable - the show is so lame, they have to do such things,
ReplyDeleteI just wish that execs would leave the creative control to the creative teams of shows for once. If the creator. and the actress both decided that killing that character was a more organic storytelling device, then leave it at that. Now there will be this big contrived undoing of the final cliffhanger, making everything that happened in the last few minutes of the season moot, ( we know they won't kill off Ryan Hardy, or Joe Carroll) thus making me as a viewer lose trust of the story itself since there will now be a total lack of storytelling integrity. In other words the final cliffhanger was a big ole pile of nothing, just for shock value. Thanks Fox execs.
ReplyDeleteugh...
ReplyDeleteHehe, I'm still mad that they killed off Carroll. I'm not sure I can stand this show without James Purefoy in it. :p
ReplyDeleteIt was the only reason I made it to episode 6, but even Carroll couldn't keep me on board for the continuous FBI mishaps. Now I don't think I will ever give it another chance (although I thought they would kill Carroll since day one to avoid redundancy). It's sad, because I wanted to be able to root for Ryan, but I just ended up having little respect for him (and the writers), because of the way everything is so against him all the time...
ReplyDeleteNo body, no death. I doubt that he is really dead. I expect it to be the same thing all over again next season.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he is dead. Maybe he comes back and kills Claire.
ReplyDeleteGood point. It's been so long without a word about his character, I kind of lost hope and started to assume that he was killed off in the finale. ;) I really hope that's not the case though!
ReplyDeleteIt's a depressing show for sure.
ReplyDeleteWell that's a shame.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't actually say explicitly if she will be back or not. I love Natalie Zea, I think she is very underrated as Claire, she was amazing, so I am happy for this. The Following already kills a lot of its characters, it can perfectly do without killing Claire. Depending on what her story will be, of course
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean that Kevin Bacon will survive too, considering he's the main character?
ReplyDeletePretty sure he was always coming back. :-)
ReplyDelete