NBC’s Timeless has had a heck of a journey. It was canceled after its first season, but within a few days of that announcement, it was un-canceled thanks to a huge outpouring of fan support. Then it was canceled again, but it was going to be able to wrap things up with a movie. Now, we finally have some details on what that movie will look like, courtesy of Collider.
For the unfamiliar (first of all, get thee to Hulu), Timeless tells the story of a time-traveling team trying to stop an Illuminati-like organization from altering history for their benefit. I admit I was late to this party, finally starting to watch somewhere between the first and second cancelings. Once I started watching, though, it was clear why fans felt so passionate about the show.
The article that inspired me to finally watch was one published here on The Mary Sue, witten by contributor Amanda Prahl. She describes Timeless as “a place on TV where diversity and inclusion are a constant presence, where women and non-white characters aren’t defined by their race or gender, where the ‘white savior’ complex is literally the motivation of the Big Bad, and where all of this happens quietly, with barely any overt socio-political commentary.”
None of that is an overstatement. Timeless has an almost simplistic feel to it. On the surface, it looks like somewhat fluffy, actiony costume porn, with the team having to immerse themselves in a new historic event every week—the time travel version of a “monster of the week” show. But the conspiracy element adds an interesting twist, and as Prahl states, the politics are deep, but subtle. The show is more subversive than it ever lets on.
The movie is slated to start filming next month, and both executive producer Eric Kripke and co-showrunner Arika Mittman are onboard, though Mittman will be “captaining the ship.” As for how this movie will differ from the show’s regular episodes, it sounds like the answer is “it won’t.” Kripke says, “It will be exactly like two more episodes of the show.”
“It’s basically the equivalent of two episodes,” he says. “As a matter of fact, we tried, at one point, to do one long historical period to last over two hours, and then eventually, Arika wisely said, ‘Why are we doing this? Why don’t we just do what we always do, which is spend an hour in two different time periods?’ And so, though they’re connected and though it’s one long mythology story that plays over both, they really are, in effect, two time periods of Timeless that they visit, and we’ll shoot each one.”
The idea of two different periods is especially interesting, considering the giant cliffhanger we were left with at the end of season two.
**Spoilers for the series finale of Timeless from here out.**
The second season ends with Jiya’s vision essentially coming true, and Rufus is killed, but just as the group is mourning his death, another upgraded lifeboat shows up, and a battle-hardened Lucy and Wyatt step out. These versions of the characters look and sound tough as hell, and they’re clearly 100% over the whole don’t-alter-history thing, inviting our timeline’s team to join them in getting Rufus back.
It was an incredibly thrilling ending, and it made the show’s cancellation all that much more upsetting. But with two timelines converging, and two episodes left, there’s a lot to explore there. Will we get to see what this other Lucy and Wyatt have been up to? Will it split time between them, or will our screens be filled with double Lucys & Wyatts the whole time? How far back will they have to go to get Rufus and wipe out Rittenhouse?
What do you all hope to see from a Timeless movie?
(via Collider, image: Justin Lubin/NBC)
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