PSYCH Team Teases LASSIE COME HOME

After more than two years of waiting, PSYCH’s sequel is finally dropping this summer on streaming platform Peacock. (Originally, the film was planned for its USA Network origin—which the series and the first film ran.)

“We knew we finished the first movie, we wanted to do a second one,” creator Steve Franks said during the ATX Television Festival panel for the film, PSYCH 2: LASSIE COME HOME. “We kind of left it hanging for the adventure to continue. But, most importantly, and what was vital to us, is just before we started shooting [the first film], [series co-star] Tim [Omundson (who plays Lassie)] had his stroke. So we rewrote the movie to accommodate just getting him in somehow, and with the idea that we’re going to do another one of these, and it’s going to revolve around Tim, whatever it is.”

While allowing they wanted to get in what fans would want and expect from a PSYCH movie, executive producer Chris Henze noted “Tim was the anchor…for this movie. We wanted to protect Tim, we wanted to make sure he had a great time. This was going to be the most amount of time that he had spent in front of a camera since his stroke, and we wanted to protect that. And make sure that he was back in the saddle, making us laugh, having fun, and feeling good about himself. And it all worked out perfectly, so we’re pleased about that.”

In the second film, Lassie is attacked on the job, and recovering from his injuries at a facility. But while he’s there, he starts to experience unusual things, which brings Shawn (James Roday), Gus (Dule Hill), and the rest of his friends into the mix.

With the on-screen loosely paralleling Omundson’s real-life recovery process, filming the scenes with him often hit close to home for his long-time colleagues and close friends.

“I missed him so much when we were doing the first movie,” Maggie Lawson (Juliet) said. “He’s my partner, and it felt, to all of us, there was this missing piece. I know for me, it was incredibly emotional. The scenes alone [were that way], but him being my partner—PSYCH, for me, he’s the other part of it for me to feel whole in it. Steve gave Tim and I have a lot of freedom…at one point he actually said, ‘Just be Maggie and Tim in this scene,’ and neither one of us could get through it, because we were both so emotional.”

“It was it was such a moment,” she continued. “And honestly, he’s so good in this movie. I think all of us just we were all very present in it from the very, very, very beginning and felt every step of it. For me, it just felt like our whole family was was whole again.”

“The moment that Tim actually walked onto the set in Vancouver, that’s a moment that I will never forget,” Hill added. “I think for the entire cast, the entire crew, the whole PSYCH family, it was absolute joy.”

But the second film will include some new faces, including Joel McHale, Richard Schiff, Sarah Chalke, and Allison Miller.

“We were so lucky to get Sarah,” Franks said. “I always was a huge fan of hers, and there was a nice really fun part for her [as someone helping Lassie through his recovery], and we were we were so happy to to get her. And I think because SCRUBS kind of lived in the same space that we did, although on a much more larger eyeball level when when we were airing, that these two shows had sort of similar structure.”

As for McHale, whose role as Lassie’s father was revealed in the four-minute clip that followed the panel, the team asked Lawson to reach out to him to see if he’d be willing to join the PSYCH world. “I reached out to Joel, he immediately responded [to say he was] in,” Lawson recalled. “He said he would, he was emotional, he was honored in every way, he loves the show, but Tim means so much to him and he was just in.”

Schiff, who was like family to Hill since their time together on THE WEST WING, also jumped at the chance to do a lighter role. “He read the script, thought it was hilarious, and he doesn’t really get a chance to do comedies that often,” Hill noted. “So he thought it would be great to come hang out with us for a little while, and he had a blast working with us.”

And, naturally, Roday recruited his A MILLION LITTLE THINGS co-star for her guest spot in the film. “Everybody loves a basic cable company-network drama crossover—it always works,” Roday joked. “I spent plenty of time working with Allison and I got to know her well enough to know that she did would dig what we do. [She’s] a very talented comedic actress who doesn’t get to do a lot of comedy, so it was fun for her and it was fun for us. And anybody who watches that show and also PSYCH should get a kick out of seeing us on screen, playing different people.”

Are you excited for the second PSYCH film?

PSYCH 2: LASSIE COME HOME, Wednesday, July 15, Peacock

RELATED:

• Peacock Sets Launch Lineup, Including PSYCH Sequel
• PSYCH 2: LASSIE COME HOME Gets New Teaser
• USA Network Sets Full Series PSYCH Marathon
• Daily Dose of Joy: The Best of (Early) PSYCH’s Shawn and Gus
• NBCUniversal Names Streaming Site, Officially Adds BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Reboot, SAVED BY THE BELL and PUNKY BREWSTER Revivals

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