The TV Chick

The Secret Circle premiered last night on the CW to very good numbers, and I am so excited it did so well! If you don’t know already, the show centers around Cassie Blake (played by Britt Robertson) who is forced to move in with her grandmother, after her mom dies. She soon learns she is a witch and there are a group of young witches who call themselves “The Circle.” Kevin Williamson is the Executive Producer on The Secret Circle and The Vampire Diaries. I recently had the chance to chat with him at Comic Con about the mythology of the show, how the show stands out from the pack, the possibility of a crossover with The Vampire Diaries and much more.

The Secret Circle has such a wide cast of characters. Can you talk about playing with that whole mythology?
A decent mythology show is so hard to develop and create but it also makes it challenging and exciting, because I really like mythologies. I’ve always loved building a world from scratch. And this way, I don’t have it from scratch, I have help, which is so nice. I’ve got this source material which gives us a lot and then I can sort of redesign it for a TV series and then have a bunch of other writers come in. I have a lot of other amazing, talented people help me do it. And we’re going to deal with the different generations. You’ve got your young circle, this brand new circle, so to speak. And then you have the next level which is the Natasha Henstridge, who plays Dawn and Gale Harold, who plays Charles. And those are the parents. Then you’ve got Jane, who is the grandmother, who is the elder circle. And it’s really interesting. I’m very fascinated by the the rules and what are their powers and what can they do, how can they do them, what are the laws of being a witch? What does it date back to? I also thought it would be really interesting if it’s modern times and the elders don’t really believe that there’s a place for witches anymore. And of course, others feel differently. And in the olden days, you were born into the circle. And wherever there is a good witch, there’s a bad witch. And I think what’s happening is sort of a rebirth of the witches at Chance Harbor. There’s a sort of uprising, an awakening of witches. And the reason being because as you’ll see when you watch the show, with witches, come a lot more.

How would you describe the show to separate it from The Vampire Diaries?
The commonality is probably LJ Smith and me. And the idea that I really just like writing emotional horror. And this is going to be very, very emotional. And hopefully adrenaline-paced, emotional relationships, where you’re on the edge of your seat, hopefully, watching all the scary stuff happen and at the same time, you cry at the end. That’s my thing. That’s my game. I want emotional. I want to pull all of the emotion out of it. In terms of the differences, this is not as a violent show. The Vampire Diaries, as emotional as it is, and epic as it is with the love story, there’s something very masculine about it, because there’s vampires and werewolves and you’re ripping heads off and you’re ripping hearts out. This is witchcraft and it’s not so in-your-face violent like that. As you saw from the pilot, he drowned a man, by just merely describing it. So it’s just a different type of horror. It’s a different type of menace. And that’s the challenge of it, because you can’t just take a knife and stab somebody. Not to say we won’t, but it’s witchcraft.

Is it in the same universe as The Vampire Diaries? Could there be a crossover?
We’re playing with the idea of a companion piece and LJ Smith did not see the two books as a crossover and we’re sticking as two separate worlds. The show does not live in the universe that Mystic Falls does.

Can you talk a little bit about the casting process and how you chose Britt and the rest of the cast?
I knew Britt because I knew Liz Tigelaar who did Life Unexpected and it was picked up the same year The Vampire Diaries was and Liz Tigelaar and I go way back to Dawson’s Creek. And we’ve been friends and I’m a big fan of hers and I just worship the ground she walked on and I met Britt and I kept saying Britt, Britt, she’s so good. I kept saying, “Boy, I wish I had her on a show.” And then when Scream 4 came around, I was like, “Oh I wish she could play a part in Scream 4.” but they were still shooting and she could only do a small part. We couldn’t use her as much as I wanted to. And then when this happened, my first thing was what about Brittany Robertson? I went to the network and they said we want to present you with who we want to play the part, and they said it’s Brittany Robertson. I was like, “Oh we are on the same page!” And Thomas Dekker, I just think is the most amazing actor that ever lived. I’ve been wanting to work with him forever and I wanted him to be in Scream 4, too. His audition was amazing.

There’s been a lot of shows about witches, how is one going to be unique?
There’s elements of The Craft because there’s teenage wish fulfillment. There doing spells. I like the accult. I like Rosemary’s Baby. I like the devil worship. I like the voodoo. I like the stuff that just goes batshit crazy and the challenge will just be how much can I infuse that into the witchcraft and make it really scary. So it’s really going to come out — who’s good, who’s bad? How evil can we go? I want this show to be scary and that’s my biggest thing and in the same breath, I also want it to be magical and lovely and all that romance. So, I want to have my cake and eat it, too. Hopefully, I can do it. We’ll see. It’s a big challenge.

The Secret Circle airs Thursday nights at 9 PM on the CW.