{"id":2614,"date":"2015-04-02T17:27:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T17:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2015\/04\/02\/olympus-premieres-tonight-on-syfy-nick-willing-talks-plot-and-expecations\/"},"modified":"2015-04-02T17:27:54","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T17:27:54","slug":"olympus-premieres-tonight-on-syfy-nick-willing-talks-plot-and-expecations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2015\/04\/02\/olympus-premieres-tonight-on-syfy-nick-willing-talks-plot-and-expecations\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Olympus\u2019 premieres tonight on SyFy, Nick Willing talks plot and expecations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tariq Kyle \/ Hypable<\/em><\/p>\n

Syfy\u2019s newest original drama,\u00a0Olympus<\/em>, premieres tonight at 10:00 p.m., and we\u2019ve got an exclusive interview with show creator Nick Willing to help give you the inside scoop before this incredible drama airs.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019re in for a treat tonight on the Syfy channel if you\u2019re planning on tuning into\u00a0Olympus<\/em>, and we hope you are! The show is an incredible, fresh take on ancient Greek mythology, and if you love action and adventure, you will love\u00a0Olympus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on? Don\u2019t worry! We sat down with the show creator Nick Willing and he helped explain the entire concept of the show while also giving us some great information on what we can expect this season.<\/p>\n

How did you come up with the idea for \u2018Olympus\u2019?<\/h4>\n

Well, it\u2019s one of my personal obsessions since I was three years old \u2014 the ancient Greeks. I didn\u2019t figure out why until I was old enough to understand psychology, and the interesting thing about ancient Greeks is their religion, their mythology, even their plays are a way of expressing the human mind. The gods, their stories are archetypes that live inside us. Gods are ways of expressing the things that drive us.<\/p>\n

So, in other words, they\u2019re absolutely perfect for dramatization. One of the things I\u2019m intrigued by is something I\u2019ve never seen done before: The Greek tragedies brought to television. Here are the greatest stories ever told in drama, perhaps the first and most visceral of all soap operas and we\u2019ve never tried bringing them to television. That was my plan \u2014 what if we made a show set in ancient Greece that was exactly like the ancient Greeks intended but was as modern and hard hitting as Tarantino meets Guillermo del Toro. That\u2019s what we\u2019re doing, we\u2019re doing something fast, twisted, filled with surprises, just as those original dramas were.<\/p>\n

For those who don\u2019t know what \u2018Olympus\u2019 is about, can you explain what they\u2019ll be tuning into?<\/h4>\n

Olympus is a story of a young man, a hero, who was brought up in hiding. He didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever know why until his mother was brutally murdered and in his search to discover why she was murdered and why he was brought up in hiding he discovers that it was because he has, inside of him, an extraordinary power. A sort of secret weapon, a riddle of the gods that when unlocked will open the doors to Olympus and grant him the immortal power of the gods.<\/p>\n

This is the story of that young man\u2019s quest, what [the riddle] is and how to unlock the door and become an immortal god. Now, unfortunately, almost everyone else in the show \u2014 the King of Athens, Minos the most powerful king in the civilized world, the Oracle of Gaia and many others \u2014 all want the same thing. They need him alive but under their power and influence so he could take them to the doors of Olympus.<\/p>\n

At the end of the show he does indeed go to the doors of Olympus and he discovers what it is to be an immortal god.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a huge spoiler! But I guess the show is more about the journey, isn\u2019t it?<\/h4>\n

Interestingly, it\u2019s not a spoiler because it\u2019s a riddle [that lets him into Olympus], so one of the interesting things about this journey is that in solving this riddle you come to find out there\u2019s a bunch of other stuff. Like, for instance, what is the nature of the character and the character of others? We explore what it is to be human \u2014 betrayal, greed, passion, love \u2014 all of the things expressed through the riddle.<\/p>\n

The pilot hits the ground running and starts in the middle of a bunch of drama. Were you worried about confusing viewers when they tune in tonight?<\/h4>\n

One of the things having worked a lot in science fiction and fantasy is that I know the audience is filled with incredibly smart people who love complex stories, riddles, twists and turns. But what else they love, more than anything, is the cosmology of different worlds.<\/p>\n

They love the mythologies that are spun around science fiction and science fantasy stories. And I think that\u2019s because they\u2019ve got these sort of chess player minds, so in order to really live in that world, you really have to have sophisticated, complex screenplays that live on different levels. It should be enjoyed, experienced, and felt more than anything else.<\/p>\n

It does hit the ground running in that you have to watch the first thirty seconds to really get the most out of the show. One of the things that I think is that if you come in late, you\u2019re going to miss the great moments. It continues on in that fashion all the way through the series; it gets faster and faster and more twisted and more extraordinary and complex. We\u2019re introduced not only to what the gods mean and who they are, but what world they live in, what they are, and why they\u2019re here.<\/p>\n

One of the things we set up in the beginning is that Hero has this huge riddle inside of him that could unlock the door to Olympus. We will eventually find out, but he doesn\u2019t know what that is. He cannot sleep with a woman and bear a child or he will lose that gift, in the same way that his father passed the gift onto him. Interestingly, the woman who he is most crazy about is the Oracle of Gaia, and she can\u2019t sleep with anyone or she will lose the gift of second sight. So you have this incredibly electric relationship between two people who can never actually fulfill their greatest passion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a long-winded way of answering your question, but I think the information is fed to our audience in a way our audience really enjoys. They love plot detail and mythology and understanding different houses and kings.<\/p>\n

What comparisons would you hold against \u2018Olympus\u2019?<\/h4>\n

I tried to make a show that was like no other show out there, but I realized as soon as you make a fantasy show and put it in an arcane time, people will compare it to other shows because people like to make comparisons. But I\u2019ll let you know my secret: My touchstones for this show were\u00a0Pan\u2019s Labyrinth<\/em>,\u00a0Pulp Fiction<\/em>, and\u00a0The Prisoner<\/em>. I wanted to get as far away from things like [Game of Thrones<\/em>] as possible because I wanted to create a show that was more surprising and unexpected on television.<\/p>\n

It starts fast, it does have twists and turns in the first episode, but let me tell you that as you get on throughout the season, by episode 10 and 11 it will be mind-blowingly different from anything you\u2019ve seen. It takes a while to get that extreme and we\u2019re always trying to push the envelope as it goes. What it\u2019s doing is setting up the audience for a very big finale where we sort of answer the riddle to the meaning of life itself.<\/p>\n

Is there anything you wanted fans to know about the show or any closing remarks you have for those tuning in tonight?<\/h4>\n

Yeah, I think the other thing that people will be interested in knowing is that it\u2019s got more visual effects shot than any other show made for television. 70% of this show was shot in virtual environments so we can design the world that eventually becomes part of the story. They should feel realistic, but they\u2019re heightened enough to make you feel like you\u2019re in another world.<\/p>\n

The other great enjoyment people have had watching the show is that the visual quality of it is so extraordinary looking. We have 55 different virtual environments built and apart from all the creatures and monsters and gods you\u2019ll encounter this season, there will always be these extraordinary worlds, too. I think science fiction fans will find it fascinating and eye-catching.<\/p>\n

And the last thing I\u2019ll leave off with is that a lot of shows start with a big bang on episode 1 and then just levels out, but this show keeps going. Episode 2 has more effects than episode 1, and it just keeps going like that. I wanted the whole season to be an exceptional jewel. This is the first time I\u2019ve made a whole series. I\u2019ve made on a ton of shows like\u00a0Tin Man<\/em>, and\u00a0Alice in Wonderland<\/em>,\u00a0Neverland<\/em>, and bunch of shows for SyFy, but this is the first time I\u2019ve made a series. I wanted it to be an exceptional thing, so we\u2019ve worked incredibly hard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tariq Kyle \/ Hypable Syfy\u2019s newest original drama,\u00a0Olympus, premieres tonight at 10:00 p.m., and we\u2019ve got an exclusive interview with show creator Nick Willing to help give you the inside scoop before this incredible drama airs. You\u2019re in for a treat tonight on the Syfy channel if you\u2019re planning on tuning into\u00a0Olympus, and we hope … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Olympus\u2019 premieres tonight on SyFy, Nick Willing talks plot and expecations - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2015\/04\/02\/olympus-premieres-tonight-on-syfy-nick-willing-talks-plot-and-expecations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Olympus\u2019 premieres tonight on SyFy, Nick Willing talks plot and expecations - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tariq Kyle \/ Hypable Syfy\u2019s newest original drama,\u00a0Olympus, premieres tonight at 10:00 p.m., and we\u2019ve got an exclusive interview with show creator Nick Willing to help give you the inside scoop before this incredible drama airs. 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