Following the Ready Player One panel in the Arena at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday, March 24 at WonderCon 2018 was the Lost in Space panel. This being an hour and half panel, there was plenty of time for us to watch the entire first episode of the upcoming Netflix reboot of the classic TV show from the 1960s.
I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that I really enjoyed the first episode and I will definitely be watching Lost in Space when it debuts on Netflix on April 13, 2018.
After we watched the episode, Clarke Wolfe moderated a panel featuring Lost in Space Showrunner Zack Estrin and cast members Toby Stephens (John Robinson), Molly Parker (Maureen Robinson), Maxwell Jenkins (Will Robinson), Mina Sundwall (Penny Robinson), Taylor Russell (Judy Robinson), Ignacio Serricchio (Don West), and Parker Posey (Dr. Smith). When Clarke asked the panelists to raise their hand if this was their first convention, everyone raised their hand!
Zack Estrin talked about how it’s very hard to make this show for a regular TV situation, and that they didn’t want to make this show “on the cheap,” but Netflix allowed them to make the show on the scale that they wanted to.
Toby Stephens, who plays John Robinson, spoke about his character, who is trying to be the ideal parent, and said that he connected with his character being a father himself. Molly Parker addressed the updates to Maureen, the mother, since the 1960s, saying that one of the things she loves about the female characters is that they’re all very strong, and you never get the sense that they wouldn’t be able do what the male characters can do.
Maxwell Jenkins confirmed that he had heard the phrase “Danger, Will Robinson!” before — though it was from Family Guy! He acknowledged that he had big shoes to fill, and told us that he had gotten to meet Bill Mumy, the actor who played the original Will Robinson, with whom he bonded over Pete Seeger and comic books.
Mina Sundwall spoke about how Penny is the middle child and feels out of place, but throughout the season she will begin to feel more comfortable with herself. Moving on to Taylor Russell, she talked about shooting a particular scene in the pilot (I won’t spoil the scene for you). A mold was built for her to step into, and she said it was not a comfortable situation in that it felt constricting in every way possible. Taylor confessed she had some anxiety filming the scene, but that it was “very method.” She also talked about how Judy has made her stronger as a person, admitting that Judy is much stronger than her, and saying how she has admiration for and looks up to Judy, and hopes that she has a little bit of that.
As for Ignacio Serricchio, we didn’t see much of his character in the pilot, so Clarke had him tell us a little more about his character. He said that his character only has one goal right now, which is to take care of himself. Ignacio also revealed that he has very different values from the rest of the family. Parker Posey added that both of their characters have struggled in the world and conned their way through life.
Parker talked about how she loved Dr. Smith (who was a male) from the original series so much, so she was touched when she was offered the role. She recalled when she was 5 or 6 years old, she would wake up at 6am to watch the show.
Zack Estrin didn’t want to spoil anything, but he did reveal that the Robinsons were not the only people to end up on the planet. So one change from the original is that the family encounters other people who present their own challenges that the family must face.
The panel was opened up to audience questions, one of which asked about any favorite experiences the panelists would like to share about filming the show. Maxwell recalled filming on top of a glacier the day before his birthday and looking out at the view and realizing how lucky he was to be part of such an amazing show. Ignacio shared a story about sitting in the hairdresser’s chair, and he turned to say something to Molly at just the wrong time — and a huge chunk of his hair got shaved off! They had to make a wig for him.
Mina told us about her audition and how she messed it up so badly that Zack called her back in and gave her a printed script so that she could look it over and do it again. Maxwell revealed that he almost wasn’t Will Robinson because his Mom didn’t give him the script. He came home and found the script on the table, and asked his Mom about it, but she said they had passed on it because it would take him away from home too much. However, seeing as how a robot was in it, and it was his best friend, he was quite interested in it. Zack revealed that when they had watched Maxwell’s audition (on an iPhone, which Maxwell pointed out was also filmed on an iPhone), it had made them cry, so they knew they had to have him, since finding a child actor that felt real was so rare.
With that, the panel ran out of time, and ended with a sizzle reel of what’s to come in Season 1 of Lost in Space.
Up next in the Arena was the Fear the Walking Dead panel. Stay tuned for our recap and photos of it!
You can view more of our photos from the Lost in Space panel at WonderCon 2018 below.
I’m excited about this series! Danger, Will Robinson!