Felicia Day is a Comic-Con staple, making her name thanks to DIY productions that strike a chord with fans who share her geeky passions. This year, she arrived at SDCC to promote her latest project in a new medium for her: the audio drama.
Day has created and stars in a new Audible narrative series called Third Eye, in which she plays Laurel, “a ‘Chosen One’ wizard still grappling with the fallout of failing a decade earlier in her fight with the ultimate evil.” Directed by writer/comedian Jonah Ray, Third Eye boasts an awesome cast that includes Sean Astin, London Hughes, Wil Wheaton, and Neil Gaiman as The Narrator.
In general, I find it difficult to get into narrative audio. For me, they’re harder to focus on than, say, non-fiction podcasts. That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised that I was immediately drawn into Third Eye‘s first episode by Day’s sharp writing, and the cast’s nuanced and hilarious performances. If that first episode is anything to go on, this series is going to be a must-listen for anyone who loves comedy and/or the fantasy genre.
I got to speak with Day about the series, and she immediately addressed how weird it was to be at SDCC when she really wanted to be on a picket line. “It’s been a very interesting Con,” she said. “I’m on double-strike, so I’m here really in a very narrow pocket to support this audio project, which is allowed through the strike, but my heart is on the strike line with my fellow actors and writers.”
If Hollywood won’t tell your stories, tell them elsewhere!
Generating over 400 pages of material, Third Eye took Day five years to write before she was able to fully produce it. The project “filled [her] COVID days with as much joy as [she] could get,” and she calls Third Eye “a love letter to everything that I love taking in: fantasy, comedy, adventure. It’s everything I love.”
But it wasn’t only a matter of time spent. Over the past few years, Day has had a frustrating experience with trying to tell her stories her way in Hollywood, which always brings her back to alternative platforms.
“I’ve pitched a lot,” she explained. “I’ve developed quite a bit of IP—of my own IP, of other people’s IP—it was not a great experience for me as a writer, because I just like making stuff and releasing it. So, this is an opportunity for me to tell a story about characters I love and be able to make it the way I wanted to make it.”
She doesn’t, however, see that as a come-down. If anything, “[Re: Third Eye] I believe this is the best version of what the project could be, because I don’t think the story the way I wanted to tell it would’ve ever made it through the Hollywood development project to make it this way.”
Why do the “Chosen Ones” always have to be kids?
The plight of the Child Prodigy has come up a lot in her work, having been a violin prodigy herself. That experience is reflected in Third Eye for sure. But I also noticed the fact that we’re getting to know Day’s ‘Chosen One’ character as an adult, which I think is an important subversion of the ‘Chosen One’ trope.
What if Harry Potter or Rey didn’t take their big, world-saving actions until they were in their 30s or 40s?
Shouldn’t young people be free to make mistakes and fail, because they’re learning and growing as humans? I asked Day about that particular phenomenon.
“Once you hear all the episodes, you will see that is definitely a process, and that is definitely a lesson,” Day explains. “But it’s also about being valued for yourself and not your achievements. Because that’s the prodigy syndrome, like you’re only as good as your piano is, or whatever. And how do you live up to that when you’re not extraordinary in that way? That is a big theme for me, and I really wanted to embody that in this project.”
However, there is definitely an element of asserting herself as a woman in her forties in Third Eye. She says:
“As a woman in Hollywood, there are not as many roles for someone my age. Which is crazy, I’m not really that old. But you do, as a woman, see a real shift in your career and in the way the world perceives you. And I wanted to be like, ‘I’m not going away. Like, I’m not just gonna back off so that you can tell the story of the 20-year-old version of this. You can’t reboot this other property with a bunch of 19-year-olds. I’m not interested in that.”
Older and younger women actually can and should be friends!
She isn’t only interested in the journey of older women. Third Eye prominently features a teenage girl character named Kate (LilyPichu), who Laurel ends up taking under her wing. Day believes their relationship to be the heart of the series.
“What was key to this story is the relationship between Laurel and Kate,” Day says. “Who comes in and really has to figure out how to be guided in this world in a way, but not having the mentor have to step away. It really is a shared story.”
Their shared story was important to Day because she doesn’t believe in prioritizing young women over older women, or vice versa. Day remarked,
“Women who are older have to step out of the way to have a young woman actualize herself, and I think that’s a really misogynist construct that keeps women apart and keeps them being enemies. Seeing older women as either irrelevant, or not someone to learn from, or be friends with, or associate with. And I think that’s just to control women. Right? Because if we’re unified, we fu*king get things done.”
So, Day has told her story her way with Third Eye, and she’s proud of it, regardless of how successful it ends up being. “Hopefully, this is a big success,” she says. “If not, I still made it.”
Third Eye arrives from Audible on October 5.
(featured image: Presley Ann/Getty Images for Audible)
