An actor who has never failed to impress in live-action or animated form, Alan Tudyk shifted gears last year in creating the hilarious and absurd crowdfunded web series Con Man. In doing so, he enlisted his former Firefly co-star Nathan Fillion for a role that paid homage to the pair's days on the short-lived cult series. Tudyk spoke with CinemaBlend about the comedy getting its wide digital release this week, and he was full of good news on all fronts when it comes to the upcoming Season 2 on Comic-Con HQ, and I was particularly happy when he talked to me about Fillion's character Jack Moore.
He's in it more this season. Last season, the only time you saw Nathan was in the flashbacks to Spectrum, the TV show, when we were on the spaceship and the lost episode that gets released. And on this one, I wanted to work with him as my best friend. That's not true, you saw Jack Moore, but we were always missing each other. Whenever I got there, he was already gone because he's such a big, big, busy movie star. So this season, we get to do scenes together, and that's really great.
If there was ever a more suitable rallying cry for cheers than "more Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion together," I haven't heard it. And Con Man sets up such a gloriously made-for-comedy relationship between the duo that definitely needs to be explored more in the show's future.
Season 1 was largely about setting up Tudyk's put-upon Wray Nerely, former star of cult sci-fi series Spectrum, and his yearning for legitimate non-genre jobs, and Season 2 will see Wray agreeing to fellow Spectrum co-star Jack Moore's plan to turn that short-lived series into a movie, so long as Jack uses his Hollywood hookups to give Wray the gig he's looking for. The fact that Wray is completely put off by both Jack and the rest of the cast - which includes Amy Acker, Skyler Day, Henry Rollins and Liza Lapira - just means the awkward quotient in Season 2 will skyrocket. And there Nathan Fillion will be, probably oblivious to all of Wray's distress, just begging us to hate to love him.
After so many years on Castle, it's great that Nathan Fillion has always kept his comedy chops sharp; and he'd have to in order to outshine Alan Tudyk, who has some pretty magnificent bathroom-related moments in Con Man. Fillion popped up on Modern Family and the series finale of Gravity Falls earlier this year, but it looks like Con Man Season 2 will be the best place (for more than one reason) to find him on the small screen in the near future.
Season 1 of Con Man didn't just feature two Firefly cast members, either, as Alan Tudyk rounded up quite a few of those beloved actors to cameo in interesting ways. During our interview, however, the actor told me that there's still two cast members that won't be seen on Con Man...yet.
Most of them have been able to be on Con Man's first season. And then this season we almost got Morena (Baccarin). She's just a very busy, busy woman with her Deadpool and her Gotham and all of that. So she was almost there, but next season! And then also Ron Glass, we'd love to have him, of course.
If Tudyk can keep Con Man even half as goofy and ridiculous in future seasons as things got in Season 1, then I absolutely hope to see more of this show on a yearly basis, even if Firefly stars don't show up. But while we wait on more renewals, you can always find Con Man streaming on Comic-Con HQ, which only costs five bucks a month for a subscription (with a free trial on top of that). Alternately, you can easily head here to purchase and download all of Season 1 in its digital entirety. Either way you do it, you're winning out more than Wray Nerely is.
Season 2 is coming soon to Comic-Con HQ, and you can head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what else you can look forward to watching on the small screen.
