James Wolk faces down elephants, snakes and all manner of angry animals in Zoo, but the actor dashed viewers’ hopes of seeing one popular creature.
“No, you’re not going to see a unicorn,” Wolk said at San Diego Comic Con. “I’m sorry to tell you.”
Well, that’s disappointing news.
In “Zoo,” airing at 8 p.m. CT Tuesdays on CBS, Wolk plays Jackson Oz, an American zoologist investigating why animals worldwide are becoming more aggressive and cunning than ever before.
The thriller, based on James Patterson’s novel of the same name, ends its second season with a two-hour finale Sept. 6. CBS recently renewed “Zoo” for a third season to air summer 2017.
“This season sets up Season 3, they way that they end it,” Wolk said at Comic Con. “Selfishly we want the show to keep going, so they keep the door open. Any time the door’s kept open there’s a little bit of a cliffhanger, right?”
Wolk assured fans that the Season 2 story solves many mysteries from Season 1. Many already have been, including information about Jackson’s past and about the experiments conducted by his father, professor Robert Oz.
“Even though he’s dead, that doesn’t mean he’s not affecting the group in the present,” he said. “Things that he’s done start to come back, to resurface, and adversely affect the group and provide us with a whole new set of challenges. It really kind of takes things down a dark rabbit hole.”
The show has moved beyond Patterson’s book but the author, who also serves a producer on the show, seems to be OK with where the show is going, Wolk said.
Wolk wouldn’t get too specific about what viewers will see for the rest of Season 2—even when promised nothing would leave the interview space—but he did discount some theories.
“I can safely say it’s not aliens and it’s not the natural mystic. It’s science. Something has happened, and there is somebody or something to blame, absolutely,” Wolk said when asked if the mutations are supernatural or science based. “It keeps a very heightened show that’s very out there and very fictional somewhat grounded.”
CBS Television Studios produces “Zoo.” Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum and Patterson are executive producers. Andre Nemec, Scott Rosenberg, Michael Katleman, James Mangold, Cathy Konrad, Bill Robinson, Leopoldo Gout and Steve Bowen also executive produce.
The first season currently is streaming on Netflix.
James Wolk talks Zoo