** NOTE: Some Small Spoilers Ahead! **
Canada's favourite time-travelling sci-fi adventure is back!
That's right -- "Continuum" Season 3 premieres on March 16, and the showrunners/lead actress Rachel Nichols have some surprises in store for fans. In the Season 2 finale, the last thing we saw was Alec (Erik Knudsen) using the time machine himself, thus robbing Kiera (Nichols) of her chance to finally get home to 2077.
Nichols chatted with HuffPost Canada TV about this missed opportunity, as well as many other things, including tidbits about Season 3, who shoots (and potentially kills) Kiera, and gaining/losing some "Continuum" characters.
HuffPost Canada TV: Watching you run, shoot guns, and jump from explosions is incredibly entertaining. How fit has "Continuum" made you?
Rachel Nichols: The good news is I had enough practice with the fighting and the running and the craziness on "Alias." I love shooting all of the fight scenes, because I don't get to go to the gym as much as I like with so many hours on-set, so they keep me in shape.
I thought you were about to say "I love shooting all of the guns."
I actually do love shooting guns! That's also quite fun. [Laughs]
How many useful apocalypse skills do you think you've learned on this show?
Oh, I would be awesome in the apocalypse, provided I have enough bottled water. My fiancé might think I won't do well in an apocalypse, but c'mon, I'm from Maine, I can make a fire from just sticks, I can shoot firearms, I know how to catch a deer...
Send me your address so we can coordinate when the end times arrive.
North Vancouver! Let's go!
So the Season 2 finale was pretty crazy, with lots of stuff happening. What can you tell me about "Continuum" Season 3?
Well, I've come up with my own theme for Season 3. Season 1 was "I have to get home, I have to get home, I have to get home" and Season 2 was about responsibility, about the fact that any actions, whether they're mine or the actions of Liber8, affect the future. In Season 3, it's for the greater good. Kiera has been trying to preserve the future she left, just to get back to her husband and son. If she's trying to preserve this future that's actually a pretty dark, bleak, ugly future just for two people, that's a selfish move. She opts to choose to service for the greater good. While here in the present day, she's trying to create the best possible future world, while acknowledging that she's probably never going home. And if she ever gets back to 2077, it'll probably look nothing like the world she left behind.
Kiera has so many relationships with so many different people; with some, there are secrets, with others, there aren't any. Does it get even more complicated in Season 3?
Oh, yeah! [Laughs] In the Season 3 premiere, you've got two Alec Sadlers and two Kiera Camerons. Someone sends Kiera back to stop Alec from doing more damage. There's this whole idea of the timeline. You also find out that the Freelancers are all about preserving the timeline. They're not time travellers, but they literally exist to preserve history. They want to make sure that glitches in the timeline are immediately corrected. I'm the only one who can help fix the timeline after Alec goes back and robs me of my opportunity to go home.
Does Mr. Escher come around again?
We do see Mr. Escher in the premiere of Season 3, but I cannot tell you if we will see him again. [Laughs]
The Season 3 trailer is a wild ride, too. Based on it, some people are speculating that Kiera shoots and kills Kiera. What are your thoughts on that theory?
I love that idea, actually. I wish that was the way it went down. I can tell you that I don't shoot myself, but it will come as a surprise who the real shooter is.
How many new characters are we getting in Season 3?
We've got some new characters who are coming in and out. Apparently, we're killing some people too! Hopefully I don't lose my job. [Laughs] There are huge fireworks at the end of the season, so stay tuned for that.
I have to ask about your suit. Is it comfortable?
Let's put it this way: when it's cold outside, the suit is freezing. When it's warm outside, you sweat to death. The suit is extremely sexy, yes, but when you watch me get into it and out of it, it's possibly the most unattractive I'll ever look in my life. It's a wiggle-in, wiggle-out, pull up the leg, scrunch in the arms, it's a labour of love.
"Continuum" fans are notoriously rabid, and love the show. What do you think it is about it that keeps fans so dedicated?
Our fans are incredible and amazing. They pay such attention to detail, we have to be certain to cross all our Ts and dot all of our Is. Every piece of paper you see is germane to the scene we're shooting. All the stuff in the background, too. The fans love the mythology, the rules of time travel and the characters. It's not just black-and-white, it's not just good vs. evil. It's a constantly changing entity. Even Kiera herself lands in 2012, thinks she has a clear-cut idea on who the bad guys are and considers herself a good guy. As things progress, she begins to realize that even if Liber8's tactics may have been unorthodox and completely immoral, their end-game might be something amenable to her, knowing the future that she comes from, and knowing what it's like in the present day.
"Continuum" Season 3 premieres on Showcase on Sunday, March 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
