NIKITA: Craig Silverstein Teases Season 3

NIKITA is finally back!

Tonight’s season premiere is not only an incredibly rewarding hour of television for longtime fans, but for potential new viewers, the hour is an easily accessible way for you to entire the series. (And if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. The show is worth you checking out!)

While you wait for the episode to debut, I talked with executive producer Craig Silverstein about the changes to season 3, happiness for Michael and Nikita, what Owen will mean to the dynamic, Amanda, and more…

Fans were pretty much worrying right up until the show was renewed in May. When did you start to get a feeling you’d get a third season?
Craig Silverstein: I started to get a good feeling around episode 20, 21, when we were shooting them. Because I had made some adjustments and I had started to hear from [CW boss] Mark Pedowitz that he was liking what he was seeing. And I felt that there really was no reason for him to be saying this, so I just started to get this indefinable [feeling], this might be OK. I was wondering if we would be picked up for a full order or not. It was great that we were.

What has not knowing your fate done to your storytelling year-to-year? The show isn’t massively myth-heavy, but there’s certainly an arc you guys are shaping…
CS: This season, we’re trying to make a more concerted effort to have it be more standalone, so that in terms of serialization, what you’ve been watching for the past couple of years has been an origin story about the formation of this agency, a good agency. And now they’re being put to work. Not that it completely becomes MI-5 now or something like that — there are still arcs. But what I want to try and avoid is having them lead the way.

Have we for sure seen the last of Percy?
CS: Unless it’s a flashback, you’ve seen the last of Percy.

I figured as much, but with television, you never know.
CS: I don’t think I could pull that particular one with him.

What was it like saying goodbye to that character, given the huge presence he had on the show for the first few seasons?
CS: A lot of this season is fighting Percy’s evil legacy. He’s still hanging over the show, like a cloud.

Has time passed between the finale and the premiere?
CS: A little over a month. A month and a half.

So is everyone a little more settled in their new positions?
CS: Settled in their new positions. They’ve been redesigning Division. Everybody’s been getting used to it. But when we come into the first episode, it’s the first time something has popped up. So it’s actually their first mission at Division. So Nikita gets roused from the relaxing thing she’s doing.

Do you intend to keep Michael and Nikita happy for at least a bit?
CS: For a bit! They’re going to be very happy — everybody’s going to be very happy at the end of the first episode, I believe…I think it’s going to leave people on a high. We want to maintain that for a little while.

And Devon Sawa (Owen) is now a series regular. What does that mean for the show?
CS: Owen is a wild card. He’s a wild card, and whenever you look back at ways Owen has entered an episode, it’s always really volatile, and strangely innocent at the same time. One of my things is I want to see him more, but I want to preserve that [element]. I never want him to show up and say, “What are we doing today?” You always want Owen in some direction.

And how will he impact the relationships on the show?
CS: I think it impacts everybody’s relationships: Michael and Nikita, and Alex and Sean. He’s sort of an eligible guy and everyone else is hooked up. “Where do I fit?” So maybe he stirs things up.

Are you looking at him as a potential romantic partner for one of those women?
CS: I’m interested in seeing what scenes between Owen and Alex look like, because we’ve never actually had one. See how they do on film together.

At this point it’s only hypothetical, but it feels like they could be a fun pairing, whether it’s platonic or romantic.
CS: The different between Alex and Sean is Alex is kind of damaged goods, and Sean has come from this life of privilege, life of service, so finding common ground is difficult sometimes in that relationship. Owen and Alex, they might connect more.

What can you say about Amanda?
CS: It’s gonna be good. She’s gonna have a new look. She’s very much like Nikita was in season 1: on the outs, coming back at Division, on a mission of revenge. Nikita had revenge, but also redemption in mind. Amanda just has revenge. And it’s going to be ugly.

Will she be flying solo? Or will she be recruiting other people?
CS: She actually tried to recruit all the rogue agents. And some of them have joined her. Most of them hated her just as much as Nikita in their time there. But she has Ari with her, and they have some ex-Gogol guys. And Ari wants to build the business back up, and Amanda’s sitting there doing crayon drawings of Nikita; she’s obsessed.

What can you say about the guys Division will be tracking down?
CS: Our first bad guy is Jeffrey Pierce, and he’s such a great guy. And he really embodies the danger of the kind of men and women we’re going to be going up against. And the one they go up against in the second is really unexpected.

Because of the nature of how you’re telling the show, will there be more guest stars this year?
CS: Yeah. And guest stars that matter. Part of the problem is they were either saving someone or taking someone out, but it was all part of a crusade. So you would save them or take them out, but it would still be out there. So I’m trying to make it more standalone.

Anything else you want to tease?
CS: Get ready to see a lot of trouble with our family.

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NIKITA airs Fridays at 9 PM on The CW.

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