Oz Comic-Con 2018: Shipping Wars On 'The 100' & Dark Times In 'Riverdale'

Today the real 'influencers' in pop culture - television, film, comics, anime and gaming - are not flossy Instagram figures, but fans. And pop conventions like Oz Comic-Con - again held at Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre - allow those same geeks to shine.

Typically, a pop expo brings celebrity guests associated with the big genres: horror, sci-fi, supernatural, fantasy and superhero. This year's major draws in M-town include Joe Manganiello - known to nerds as the decent-yet-doomed werewolf Alcide Herveaux from Alan Ball's True Blood (and, to the mainstream, as Magic Mike XXL's Big Dick Richie) - and KJ Apa, who portrays Archibald "Archie" Andrews in the hit TV series Riverdale. Oz Comic-Con is also spookily prescient in billing stars from Lucifer and Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (vivacious protagonist Katherine McNamara), with both shows lately cancelled to much social media outrage. The actors front popular Q&A sessions, covering such matters as "tonality" and continuity while occasionally spilling some tea.

Con culture has enabled TV shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer to endure well beyond their final broadcast. Symbolically, Clare Kramer, famed as Buffy's antagonistic goddess Glory, now gigs as a moderator. (A DJ entertains crowds between the main panels.) The cons reveal much about ephemera, too. This November will mark the tenth anniversary of the first Twilight flick, but seemingly any surplus merch has turned to dust. Still, for many, Oz Comic-Con is about the cosplay - an industry unto itself. Curiously, the weekend's coolest cosplayers are French disco robots Daft Punk. But, outside the venue, a 'Darth Vader' busks on electric guitar (his sign reads, "NEED $ for NEW DEATH STAR"). In 2018, Marvel has a huge booth at Oz Comic-Con, as does the Star Wars franchise (with a 1:1 scale replica X-Wing fighter). And, with cosplay being inherently DIY, Spotlight is a sponsor.

The Oz Comic-Con media junket happens Friday and the atmosphere is relaxed. The 100 cast members Christopher Larkin (who plays Monty Green) and Tasya Teles (Echo), each visiting Australia for the first time, approach interviews conversationally. An inquisitive Larkin invites this writer to ask questions as he hangs out. Produced by The CW, The 100 is a dystopian drama set decades on from a nuclear apocalypse on Earth. It fixes on a group of teen delinquents, who, ejected from The Ark space colony, are charged with investigating the planet's viability only to encounter survivors on the ground.

Glamorous in real life, Teles has a solid background in genre TV. She guest starred in Supernatural, specifically the episode The Bad Seed directed by Jensen "Dean Winchester" Ackles. "Everybody was so welcoming and so warm and Jensen was amazing," the Canadian actor effuses. "Every time I saw him - and I'd show up for work, actually - he'd [be] like, 'Hey Tasya!' Then he'd come and give me a big hug. So that was the energy." In The 100, Teles was initially cast as the 'Grounder' Echo in a recurring part. But, in the current season, which opens after a six-year time-jump, Echo is to the fore. And, in orbiting Earth with Bellamy Blake (Bob Morley) and crew, she faces a moral dilemma. "I think she has to still confront the weight of everything that she has done blindly for [her Ice Nation clan] Azgeda. I think she understands, within her little bubble up in space with the other people, [that] what she's done is bad as she's learned and grown through the space crew. But now that she's in a bigger context with warring factions again, she really needs to start understanding how impactful what she did was and what her behaviour was like and how many people it affected - the gravity of it all. So I think she still has some learning to do. But she's definitely doing her best. She's trying to be a better person." 

Indeed, Echo is Bellamy's latest love interest - the union nicknamed "Becho" by fans. As such, Teles is now embroiled in The 100's intense shipping wars, which can be tricky for actors to negotiate (especially online). "Of the social media platforms, Twitter tends to be the most toxic and hurtful, I think," she says. Teles became belatedly cognisant of The 100's ships (notably that between Bellamy and fellow Arker Clarke Griffin, aka 'Bellarke') while shooting Season 2. "It made me really scared to take on the role of Bellamy's girlfriend," she laughs nervously. "I tried to not let that affect me in my work. I remember going to work and just saying to Bob, 'We need to make sure that we work hard on these characters and their relationship and what they need from each other and how they interact and do a lot of our homework so that, when we come and show up at work, it's fleshed out and that it kinda makes sense and is natural and organic'." Teles' concern is that the shipping "detracts from the storyline".

Meanwhile, Larkin - his Monty character established as the scientifically astute Arker - is chuffed that The 100 has generated quasi-academic discourse. "When we started the show, it seemed like it fit in this mould of dystopian, post-apocalyptic teen drama, which is where a lot of films and TV are living now," the Connecticut native observes. "I really appreciate that The CW allowed us to get far, far darker season after season. I think it allows you to explore more grey area and much deeper, faster the human condition that you normally wouldn't be able to on a CW platform." The 100 was recently renewed for a sixth series. However, Larkin has no inkling of how developer/executive producer/showrunner Jason Rothenberg will shape it. "They used to lead us in, but then it would always change so much," he says generally. As for any news on the finale? "I just hope that the show knows when to end, like, who knows when it'll be?" Larkin ponders. "But you never want it to become a parody of itself. Once it starts getting into seasons 8, 9 and 10, there's a danger of shows running out of story and running out of things to say. So I hope that it doesn't ever go down that road. I hope it finds a way to conclude naturally and completely."

Devotees of The Vampire Diaries/The Originals universe will recognise Andrew Lees as Lucien Castle, the former servant in The Trinity (together with aristocrat siblings Tristan and Aurora de Martel). In fact, Lees himself is an old Melbourne boy who, on graduating from Sydney's NIDA, briefly appeared in Home And Away. Now based in Los Angeles, the actor has returned home to mind his parents' farm for a month as they celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Introduced in the third season of The Originals, The Trinity were the Mikaelson vamps' first sires back in Middle Ages Europe and all individually materialise in New Orleans with ancient grievances. The progeny of the vampire/werewolf hybrid Niklaus "Klaus" Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan), Lucien eventually emerges as bad. But this wasn't always the writers' plan. "They had a number of potential arcs," Lees says, scoffing a green apple. "I think that originally there was a storyline where I ended up aligned with The Originals, fighting the brother and sister duo." Alas, stories were "leaked", requiring rewrites.

Lees realised that Lucien was finished when he fatally bit Klaus' love Camille O'Connell (Leah Pipes), the human bartender-cum-therapist and fan favourite. "As soon as that happened, I went, 'Ah, crap, I'm dead!' I'm like, 'You can't kill Cami and get away with it'." The entire production felt Cami's death and Pipes' exit, Lees affirms. "I think it was hardest for her - because Leah, at the time, was ready to move on and ready to see what other projects and stuff were out there. But, at the same time, then when it was actually reality - when it was actually gonna happen - there was that real sadness of leaving this family behind. That was hard, though. I felt really privileged 'cause I was actually there for the last scene that she shot on the show. It was really nice to be there for that. You could tell that it was a very bittersweet thing - like she was excited for what was out there, what was next, and felt like the character had had a really good arc; from the whole interaction with Klaus and then turning into a vampire and everything. She had a good story." Showrunner Julie Plec described Lucien as a "nasty snake" in a blog. Says Lees, "Some people have come up to me and said, 'I hated you right from the start,' and blah-blah-blah. 'I knew you were gonna be a badass.' I'm like [sounding wounded], 'Really? I wasn't trying to play that at the start!'" He's amused to hear that the Mikaelsons are 'using' Lucien's apartment in the final series of The Originals. "I guess they spent quite a bit of money on it!" Lees, who'll appear in the Peter Jackson-produced Mortal Engines, is waiting to hear about a role in Arrow.

At Oz Comic-Con on Saturday afternoon, Kramer hosts the Lucifer panel with Lauren German and Lesley-Ann Brandt - casually-attired and apparently enjoying red wine - to a full house. The flirty co-stars begin discussing their hopes that the show, which Fox canned last month, will be picked up by a streaming platform following the #SaveLucifer campaign (the actors' contracts expire on 16 Jun!). Lucifer launched as an offbeat police procedural in 2016. Having abdicated from Hell, Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) moves to LA, reinventing himself as a nightclub owner. The fallen angel then teams with Detective Chloe Decker (German) as a crime consultant. Brandt portrays his old demon sidekick, Mazikeen. German and Brandt learnt of Lucifer's cancellation as they were heading to New Zealand, prior to Australia. The crew haven't had a chance to reconnect. "It feels very disjointed," German, sporting a flat-cap, says. The Californian believes that another season of Lucifer is necessary to fulfil the narrative arcs (Chloe probably isn't mortal, but doesn't know it). "There's so many unanswered questions." The intention was to explore different characters. Brandt also envisaged it'd "go darker."

The weekend's megastar is Riverdale's KJ Apa, epic queues forming for his sessions. The New Zealand actor - minus red hair, but wearing a blazer and glasses - has an irreverent demeanour. Apa freely admits that, pre-audition, he was unfamiliar with Archie Comics and its titular high-school character whose dual passions are football and music. Ironically, Apa hates singing. He anticipates that the third season of the teen drama will be "darker", since Archie is in jail. But, beyond that, Apa says he knows little about the writers' future storylines. "Literally they don't tell us anything!"

Manganiello's Sunday panel is the last at 5pm. The towering Pittsburgh thespian - whose muscles are hidden under winter layers and worn-in jeans - is easily Oz Comic-Con's most sweary guest, rivalling Jason Momoa. The questions largely pertain to the acclaimed True Blood (Manganiello was actually fancast as Alcide) and Steven Soderbergh's "stripper movie" Magic Mike. Shrewdly, Manganiello discloses zilch about his much-hyped gig as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke in the DC Extended Universe (or, for that matter, the Batman reboot).

The final season of True Blood was contentious when HBO aired it in 2014. Alcide was randomly shot while protecting his faerie love, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), from vigilantes. Yet Manganiello recollects the Southern gothic series as "the time of my life", profoundly connecting to his alter-ego. And, he says, though True Blood is reductively categorised as a 'supernatural' show, it was "deceptively difficult" to make. Manganiello himself is a self-described geek. He lauds a longtime obsession with the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and is always pleased to empower jocks to express their nerd side. Manganiello is marketing a D&D-inspired streetwear line, DEATHSAVES, which is "a little heavy metal" and "demonic". Oh, and he means to pursue another project under the D&D umbrella, but, of course, can't say more.