Blast got a chance to talk to Joshua Gomez who plays Morgan on the TV show “Chuck” and hear a little bit about the upcoming season from one of its actors. Here’s what we had to say:

BLAST: So how goes shooting?

JG: It goes well. We’re having a blast. It’s totally just a pleasure and so much fun to come to work and work on this set because it’s a great set. It’s a fun set.

BLAST: Does Morgan get to get into the action a little bit (in season two)? Maybe?

JG: He gets into his own action. He doesn’t go out in any of the Chuck world stuff as of yet, and I don’t know if he ever will, though I’m sure he’d love it, between you and I.

BLAST: I think we’d love it too.

JG: Yeah. Some of the action comes to him at the Buy More whether inadvertently, like he doesn’t know, or like the rest of the stuff gets mixed up at the Buy More. And then there’s a few things that are like things that are specifically centered around the “ËœB’ story and the Buy More and sort of Morgan and some enemies, but like Michael Strahan from the New York Giants, and he kind of plays a big jock guy or whatever and him and Morgan get into it. So he gets into his own trouble at the Buy More.

BLAST: What about him and Anna, because that kind of tapered off at the end of season one. Does that continue into season two?

JG: It does. Yeah, it definitely does. And so is the fun little romance. It’s pretty bizarre. She’s definitely the uh… she wears the pants, or leggings.

BLAST: The short skirts in the relationship?

JG: She wears the short skirts and leggings in the relationship. Yeah, so it’s pretty funny. Exactly. Everyone kind of wasn’t sure, well, what happened? And I think that was a lot to do with the strike. I think that those episodes weren’t as fleshed out as they could be because they only had to go off of the outline that they really had through whatever episode. I think that’s the reason why the last episodes are kind of like “Huh?” We are kind of where we left off where Morgan and Anna were at. There’s some fun stuff that happens between those two. It’s pretty cool.

BLAST: I was a little worried. I was like “Did I miss something in here?”

JG: Yeah, I think a lot of people felt that way. Exactly. When we first started to do little tests for the beginning of this season, that was one of the first questions. It was like “What the hell is going on with you and Anna; where did she go?” I think everyone was kind of like hoping that that wasn’t going away. So yeah, no, it’s good.

BLAST: What about Morgan and Ellie?

JG: Mmm, now we’re getting down to it. No, at this point I think it’s just he’s good with Anna and Ellie’s now engaged with Captain Awesome. But I think in Morgan’s brain, it’s just one of those childhood absolute infatuations, first love kind of deal, and she’ll always be that. I think he loves Anna, and I think all that’s cool, but I think that if Ellie was like “Hey, what’s up Morgan?” he might not hesitate. I think he’ll always love her in that young boy’s dream kind of thing. It’s very sweet and very childlike love.

BLAST: Especially in the first few episodes of the first season you definitely got that puppy dog sort of “Oh, you want to hang out?” type of thing.

JG: It’s less of that now between Morgan and Ellie. It’s almost brother and sister, and that’s exactly what it was. She was like big sister to both he and Chuck. So I think that there’s more of that now Anna’s around. I kind of get off her case a little bit. I think there’s still a sweetness between (Morgan and Ellie) that’s unspoken. It comes out here and there. But yeah, it’s good. Another great relationship.

BLAST: I heard Josh Schwartz talk at Comic-con and I believe he said that this season takes up pretty much right where the last season ended. Is that true?

JG: Yeah.

BLAST: Can you kind of set us up for where we’re going to be starting episode one?

JG: Basically the government has kind of constructed another working Intersect. So it does pick up where we left off which is that “Okay now what happens?” Is John Casey going to get the orders to, once the Intersect is completed and fully operational, now what do we do with Chuck kind of a deal. Is he going to have to be eliminated or quarantined? I think that’s where we kind of left off and that’s exactly where we pick up with season two. Literally I think it picks up with Chuck being held out of a building and while he’s hanging there the audience will get a little recap through his panicked words. There’s not much of a gap there. It’s sort of, if the Intersect is completed, what’s going to become of Chuck? And part of that is kind of good; part of it is Chuck going like “Oh my Lord, to be free of this thing.” But I think he thinks that if the Intersect is finished, he’s a free man. He can go back to his normal life. That’s where we’ll probably pick up from.

BLAST: At the beginning, right when Chuck did download the Intersect, there was some talk of removing it. That tapered away though, and they just used him as a tool. Does that come back in this whole “We have a new Intersect” conversation? Or is it basically just “You’re going to die”?

JG: Not so much of a removal. The removal I don’t think worked and it never really comes up again. I think it’s basically “We can’t have two Intersects”. We can’t have some guy walking around knowing all these things in his head because that’s still way too much of a (danger). It doesn’t come down to removal as much as removal of him completely.

BLAST: Do we have any new characters? Maybe in the Buy More or new agents that are coming that might stay for a little bit longer or become more main?

JG: Yeah. Most of the characters that you’re probably familiar with in the first season become a little bit more present. Most of the Nerd Herd and obviously like Anna and Jeff and Lester and Big Mike and all those guys are recurring regulars or regulars or whatever. They’re going to be playing a little bit more of a role in the whole thing especially at the Buy More I think. And then of course Tony Hale comes on; Tony Hale from Arrested Development, who is just so much fun and such a cool dude and so funny. He comes on to play this really cool character called Emmett Milbarge who is brought in from corporate Buy More as an efficiency expert and as he spends more time at the Buy More you realize we are not friends. That’s the cool stuff. We had C.S. Lee played Harry Tang and he was great character for the Buy More and an adversary for Chuck and Morgan at the Buy More. Emmett’s that kind of character. This story is playing out much more like Morgan has… I hate to use the word “grown up,” because not quite yet, but he’s maturing and taking on a little more responsibility, he gets a little bit more responsibility, people are now coming to him. Chuck’s by now left the Buy More because I think the spy world is really starting to consume him a little bit more this season. At the Buy More, people like the Nerd Herd and the gang and stuff are turning to Morgan now and he does the best he can in his Morgan way, and so it usually leads to some fun times at the Buy More. And so Emmett becomes this really cool adversary for Morgan and the guys and Tony just fit right in and is just great right off the bat. It’s fun.

BLAST: What kind of character does Tony play? Is he channeling the whole “Buster” persona or is he going to be more along the lines of a serious [character]?

JG: Well, both. He’s definitely a new deal but he plays his character so well it’s easy to imagine that this is the guy that if he finds a piece of lint in his pocket he would blow a gasket. Emmett is this like ridiculously anal [character] and takes his job way too serious and the rest of us couldn’t take it any less serious, including Big Mike. You’ll definitely find some elements of [Buster], but I think it’s a whole new deal and a whole new character. It’s pretty funny. It’s pretty good stuff.

BLAST: So he’s the big new character; there’s no one else super surprising?

JG: He’s not until the fourth or fifth [episode] right now. He’s not in every episode. He doesn’t start the season off in the show but he eventually kind of comes in. As far as new characters though, nothing changes too much. As far as the spy world is concerned you still have Chuck, Casey, and Sarah, the three of them are sort of out there, so no one really gets added to that gang. A lot of cool guest stars though, a lot of people coming on board: Michael Clarke Duncan and there’s an episode where John Laroquette plays an ex-spy who has to come in and teach Chuck how to be more suave and how to seduce women and once again, a great premise, a great actor coming in. And him and Zack together are just great because they’re both so freaking cool. So yeah, you got a lot of cool guest stars, but the cast’s pretty much the same as it was like I said with the addition of some recurring like Tony Hale. That’s about it. That’s about it so far.

BLAST: What about the plot? Is there a more definite destination that we’re going towards? Is there going to be a nemesis introduced?

JG: What’s funny is that I tried to talk to the guys all the time, whether it be Josh Schwartz and mostly with Chris Fedak who I see a lot. I love trying to get answers out of them, the writing staff and stuff. But it’s like, they’ll give you little niblets. You know they have a plan. You know, they’ll pull out their Chuck bible and… I know they have their whole history ready to go. I think there’s going to be stuff they’re going to introduce, people they’re going to introduce, roads they’re going to go down, but I just don’t think they’re going to give it up to us. Every script that I get is the same as what you guys are going to be seeing every week, watching it. It’s just like “Okay, okay. Interesting, interesting.” I mean there’s a few things they’ll tell us in advance but as far as any big things like that where are we going to find out what really happened to Chuck’s parents or is his father alive and is he out there? I’m sure they have a map and a blueprint, but they sure as hell aren’t telling me.‚  But I’m sure whatever it is, it will be good. I think we’re shooting episode nine right now and there’s some kind of cool revelations and some cool things. And of course Bryce Larkin, who kind of is the nemesis, he’s popping in and out. There’s always Bryce lingering, kind of causing havoc, kind of helping Chuck and also hurting him at the same time. I would say that if there is a nemesis, it would still be Bryce Larkin. As far as anything new, again, perhaps, but I don’t know.

BLAST: Well once again, thanks for talking to us. We look forward to watching Morgan wreak havoc at the Buy More.

JG: [laughing] Well, you will. You will.

About The Author

Terri Schwartz was a Blast Contributing Editor from 2008-2009.

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