“On a show like this, the first day you actually walk on the set, you're suddenly 12 years old again, and it's like, ‘I'm on a spaceship,’” Dean Devlin said of the new SYFY series The Ark during a TCA press conference for the new series. Set 100 years in the future, The Ark follows the crew of a spaceship on a planetary colonization mission when something goes terribly wrong. Awoken from their cryogenic sleep with another year of travel and not enough on-board resources, The Ark depicts a tale of humanity and survival set in a realistic science-fiction world. Still, as intense and dramatic as the plot may be, bringing it to life was a lot of fun. “This tickled every creative bone I have,” continued series creator, executive producer, and co-showrunner Dean Devlin. “It's all the things that I love about making fiction. And the best part of all of it was getting to work with some incredible people.”
(Trae Patton/Syfy)
Reunited on stage in Pasadena, Dean Devlin was reunited with his fellow show-runner and three stars of The Ark. “We did The Outpost [in Syria] and we loved our crew so much,” co-showrunner and executive producer Jonathan Glassner said about the decision to film the show internationally, which also helped broaden the horizon in terms of the worldwide cast they were able to hire. “When [The Outpost] was canceled, Dean sold this one, and so we said, ‘Well, let's just keep that crew and keep those stages and set it up and do it there,’ even though we don't need to ever leave the stage because we are always on the ship. And I'm glad we did it because we have an amazing crew and it enables us to bring in a very international cast. So, we have British, we have pretend Scottish, we have a Canadian woman, we have a woman from Zimbabwe on the show. We have Spain, and we have, of course, Serbians on the show. So, it works out because the story requires that it be an international crew.”
“We turned up in Serbia, and there was just this phenomenal spaceship that had been built and it was 360 degrees,” actor Reece Ritchie shared about stepping into this world as his character, Lt. Spencer Lane. “Usually when you're in a studio, you don't have a roof. The lights are there. We had so much corridor to work with and this young, fresh, eclectic cast that was super fun and just brought so much to each of their characters. I think that's the true secret of what both Jonathan and Dean do, is they're so good at casting, because everybody was just so energetic and bright and played their parts so intelligently that for me, at least, it made it such a joy to work on.”
In the premiere episode, viewers meet Lt. Sharon Garnet the moment she wakes up aboard The Ark, the first of its passengers to realize that something is wrong. “The secrets are what attracted me to the show to begin with,” revealed Christie Burke, who plays Lt. Sharon Garnet, about the fact that nobody on The Ark is exactly who they seem to be. “When I first read the pilot, I remember being, like, I have so many questions, like, a billion questions. And I got on Zoom with Dean, and he was like, ‘I'm telling you none of them. Not a single secret.’ But that was, I think, my favorite part of the show, was all those secrets and getting to dive into them.”
“We all actually got handed our own personal secrets on our very first day with Dean,” explained Richard Fleeshman, who plays Lt. James Brice. The cast referred to these folders as “The Develin Envelope,” although they were all tight-lipped about what they each contained. “That was one of the most exciting things, because then you really take on that whole mantle of the story, because we were, under pain of death, told not to tell our fellow cast mates.” But one thing is guaranteed. Over the course of the first season, viewers will come to learn more about each character. “As we progress through the twelve episodes, you come to realize that whether it's nefarious or not, everybody has quite a complex backstory, and the reason that they're on the ship isn't always necessarily as it first appeared, which is obviously a great way of building it up and keeping people interested.”
As for what the future holds, Dean Devlin has a longterm plan for The Ark within a few quality-control limits. “Neither of us like it when a show overstays its welcome,” Dean said, a sentiment he shares with Jonathan Glassner. “So often a show will just squeeze too much out of the premise, and then it just feels like it shouldn't be on the air… As long as we can look at it and be giddy and excited about telling the story, we'll keep telling the story.”
The Ark premieres tonight at 10/9c on SYFY. Episodes will be available to stream after air on Peacock.