THE FOLLOWING at Comic-Con 2013: Live-Blog

What happens next for Ryan Hardy? The cast and executive producers will be teasing what’s to come in season 2 during the Comic-Con panel, which is set to take place at 3:15 PM PT.

I’ll be live-blogging all of the details when the panel starts, but until then, here’s the official description of what you can expect: “Hit thriller The Following returns to Comic-Con for a second year, this time bringing the bacon to Ballroom 20. Series stars Kevin Bacon (Mystic River), Shawn Ashmore (X- Men: The Last Stand) and Valorie Curry (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2) join creator/executive producer Kevin Williamson (Scream) and executive producer Marcos Siega (The Vampire Diaries) for a Q&A and video presentation.Season 1 left a number of casualties in its wake, including Jacob’s emotional killing of Paul, the kidnapping of Agent Parker that ended in her death, and Emma’s murder of Jacob. The explosive finale featured the highly anticipated face-off between Ryan and Carroll, ending in Carroll’s ultimate demise and leaving Ryan’s true love, Claire, hanging on for her life. From Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television, The Following‘s second season premieres midseason on FOX.”

3:20: We’re getting a video reel of the first season. Season 2 is coming January 2014!

3:22: Panel introductions! And we’re getting a little sneak peek at what comes next…

3:29: Um, so the clip we saw clearly showed Claire dead. The panel gets interrupted by Bacon getting a call from “Joe”…James Purefoy has crashed the panel. The bosses confirm he will return, but whether he’s alive is the big question. (No more spoilers, I guess?)

3:32: When season 2 picks up, it will be a year after the events of the finale.

3:36: What shocked people? James points to killing off Agent Parker, calling it a ‘terrible thing to do” because he loves her real life portrayer so much. Both Shawn and Bacon point to the series premiere as things that blew them away.

3:40: Kevin says he doesn’t like violence in real life, but “if you can’t tell the difference between fiction and reality, you have a bigger problem”…but he sympathizes with the issue. It is important to them that death matters.

3:41: “What I love about Weston’s arc this season is that from the pilot, he was a shiny penny…and by the end of the season he got a little worn down, a little worn down,” Shawn says. He says there’s now a parallel between Weston and Hardy because of all they’ve been through.

3:43: “In Kevin’s vision of the show, everyone we meet is in a different place in their lives, and Ryan seems lighter and more at peace than we’ve seen him in the show,” Kevin Bacon says.

3:44: “She lives in hope, always, that he’ll show up,” Valorie says of Joe. Valorie says it’s possible Emma will have met new friends in a year, and that she’s curious how Emma will be when she has to be on her own.

3:46: “I really feel the whole first season was the prologue,” Kevin Williamson says of Mike and Ryan’s relationship. He compares it to father-son/mentor-student. “He’s way too old to be my son,” Kevin Bacon says.

3:47: “He’s a guy who is never too far away from the dark stuff in his soul,” Kevin Bacon says of his character and the infamous death curse.

3:48: “I suspect he’s been doing a bit of soul-searching,” James says of the past year for his character. “Seeing where the plan went awry.” James reiterates the internet is a global thing, so there are followers everywhere.

3:50: Do we have to worry about little Joey? “No,” Kevin Williamson says. He also says we’ll see more flashbacks in season 2. Possibilities could be Joe as a young child, a young adult, etc.

3:51: As for the FBI always being two steps behind, Kevin Williamson notes that while they should be the underdog, there were times they got too dumb. Season 2 will be a brand new story, resetting the field, so it’s much more Ryan and Joe, versus Joe versus the FBI. (But Mike and Emma will still be a part of it, too.)

3:53: Favorite stuff to do? Shawn says Mike’s scenes with the fight club. Kevin Williamson points Joe returning home and Joe killing Charlie. Kevin Bacon doing some of the more mental stuff. Marcos says Ryan and Mike being unable to shoot Annie. Valorie says her favorites was when Emma met Joe for the first time, and their reunion at the compound. James says every scene he shot.

3:57: Kevin Williamson says there will be a bunch of new characters cast for next season, but no one has been cast yet.

3:59: Fan question! He wants more Ryan sarcasm, and Kevin Bacon says he hopes to have that, too.

4:00: And that’s it! Thanks for following along.