When you watch Falling Skies‘ latest episode “Silent Kill,” one thing becomes apparent, like a chef realizing his stew is missing that one key ingredient: needs more Colin Cunningham. 

Cunningham’s character, John Pope, departed (or escaped) the survivors during the events of “Grace,” but don’t count Pope out just yet. John Pope will definitely return before the season’s out, and will have plenty of explosive new developments for Colin Cunningham to play out.

But what of his character’s future when Falling Skies returns for a second season in summer 2012?  A sci-fi veteran of series like Stargate SG-1 and The 4400, Cunningham recently spoke to UGO on what to expect for the future of John Pope and why Falling Skies is one of the best TV shows on this summer.

I wouldn’t want to spoil anything regarding your character or future episodes, but given the show’s being granted a second season, can we expect John Pope back?

Colin Cunningham: God, I hope so. I hope so. I’m just happy to have done what I’ve done. But yeah, with a bit of luck, I’ll be back second season, you bet.

One major thing for your character that hasn’t really been touched upon yet is how Margaret (Sarah Carter) pretty coldly killed your brother back in the pilot, is that something that’s going to be revisited, or explored further?

Colin Cunningham: Yeah, it is. It’s definitely an undercurrent throughout the rest of the season. when you’re working on these things you wonder if these arcs are going to come an arc, finally come around. In the last episode, a lot of the things that I was hoping would happen did. So that was really good to see. So yeah, Sarah and I we finally have a little scene. We don’t really talk to each other throughout the entire episode until the last episode.

What do you think makes Falling Skies the success it is, with the current zeitgeist of alien invasion stories?

Colin Cunningham: Number one, the scope of this thing. I mean the scopeis gigantic, the sets and… we would show up to work on any given day and lookaround and there would be two, three hundred extras. two hundred of themhad rifles and were in military fatigues. The weaponry and the makeup andyou know they had civilians and they were cooking. You were surrounded bybuses that were flipped over and burning and whatever the hell… it was like “goodGod, this is not your everyday TV show.”  You know what I mean?  just themoney and stuff they put into a simple scene of two guys talking. Butthere are 300 people in the background that are loading up trucks and ready togo, so the sheer scope of it is impressive.

Also, just having the name Steven Spielberg attached to it, you know it’s not going to be stupid. You know it’sgoing to be about the values that we hold dear and about family and makingtough decisions in the middle of something that’s quite chaotic. So I hopethat, you know, that’s one of the few things that I believe make a difference. How do you reconcile Pope’s criminal, at times racist behavior with his more educated side? Colin Cunningham: I found that to be one of the fascinating partsof the character. Here’s a guy that can be very stereotypical bad guy when infact he’s got quite the intellect. He’s a very smart, intelligent guy and Ithink he’s, in a way, picked his present company simply for the sake ofsurvival. You band together and there’s strength in numbers, whereas Idon’t feel that he’s all that much stimulated by the thugs he seems to behanging around with. I think when he meets Noah Wyle’s character, TomMason, there is something there. Right away you two are trying to bond. Colin Cunningham: Yeah, there’s something going on even though I don’tthink Noah Wyle would trust my character in a heartbeat. But there is somethingthat they can both talk about, I suppose, and finally have an intellectualconversation. I think, for John Pope, that is what he finds most unique andrefreshing I suppose, with regards to his prisoner at the time. what would you say of John Pope’s journey in the first season of Falling Skies? Colin Cunningham: Pope’s journey is to see if he can reconnect with alittle spark of his own humanity, I think. I think as the show opens,he is a very pessimistic man. I don’t think he sees any hope whatsoever for thefuture. The one thing that keeps him going, if anything, is the pleasure hegets from killing these things. I think that’s a real adrenaline rush for him.I think he’s come close to dying, on more than one occasion, and yet he lived totell the tale. So, if anything, he’s almost a junkie for it. I don’t think heexpects to live so therefore he’s fearless. He’s already, I think, looked deathin the eyes and still came back to try and fight another day.

In that way itmakes him very, very interesting, but in another way it makes him verydangerous because he’s surrounded by other people who would much rather justlet their senses and be smart about things. Whereas I think Pope is just fullguns, go out, kill. He’s becoming a better guy, if there is such a thing for JohnPope. Because he is a bit of a rebel, he is a bit of a bad guy, but he’s notall bad. I have to remember, as the actor playing him, this guy has killedpeople, you know what I mean? So I never entirely lose my grip on that, youknow? what exactly landed him in prison, before the Skitters attacked? Colin Cunningham: I don’t necessarily see him as being a murdereron the outside, but I definitely see him as being a renegade, being a biker,being a guy who wouldn’t hesitate to steal. I think he was always a bit of an outsider,a bit of a wild man. And now I guess, war creates very strange bedfellows. So,you got the aliens which are the common enemy and what used to be your formerenemy is now your ally. 

Colin Cunningham as John Pope

One of the great aspects of the character is thecooking thing, this whimsical quirk that makes him so muchmore light-hearted. Will we ever see any  of John Pope’s other hidden talents and quirks pop up?  Namely: saxophone. Colin Cunningham: (laughs) No, you won’t be seeing John Pope playing thesaxophone. that I can pretty much guarantee. I think there will be littlethings from time to time. He’s a very smart guy, he’s a very bright guy, and… Ithink he loves ingredients, let me put it that way. So yeah, cooking might beone thing, but also when it comes to making bombs and all sorts of lovelythings, he’s very adept at using ingredients. The series has drawn a comparison to another post-apocalyptic show: The Walking Dead, where the threat never ends.  Does Falling Skies have more hope? Colin Cunningham: Yeah, definitely. FallingSkies is a war. It’s a winnable war, and I think it’s all about winning it. Ican see great gains being had in this war; I can see them winning. I canabsolutely see that, and I think the writers can see that, too. I think theaudience has got to believe that, you know? So yeah, I don’t see it as “this isthe way it is,” but it is. It’s an insurgency, and they’re not going to give up.as long as there’s human breath left, they won’t stop fighting. But the Skitters definitely have their own motivationthat’s going to unfold more. They’re not just cruel. Colin Cunningham: Yeah, we learn more and more about what the Skittersare, and what these things want and we learn how to fight them, and all sorts ofcool stuff. I’m really interested to see what season two’s going to do becausethere’s just a lot of questions that we have, you know?

Tell us about the research that goes into portraying this post-apocalyptic, on-the-move warfare lifestyle that the series does so well. Colin Cunningham: I think the neat thing about the show is we don’t get into too muchbackstory with anybody. We definitely hit the bricks running on this show.There’s really no backstory. We don’t flash back, we don’t do any of that kindof stuff. It’s basically a bunch of people, this has happened, and here we go.We gotta move, we gotta either eat or we’re going to starve to death, or wedon’t move we’re going to get annihilated by these things. I was lucky enough just before FallingSkies, I was very into survival books. I wouldn’t call them end of the worldbooks, but should the economy crash and blah, blah, blah, what could happen? Somegood thrillers that way. And it certainly makes you think, so in a wayFalling Skies may be an alien thing, but it’s happening allover the world. it may not necessarily be the aliens, but economies have crashed,you got people who are waiting for food, aid and medical aid and trying to getwhatever they can. whether it be an earthquake or a tsunami, it can happen heretoo. So if anything, the aliens are a metaphor to be anything from worlddisasters to the various wars that are being fought around the globe. What are five things about civilization that John Pope misses most in the aftermath of the invasion?There’s your brief moment with a Harley that I thought was great. Colin Cunningham: I think he’d miss riding on the open road withoutgetting shot at. just hitting the taverns and the strip bars, that would be aJohn Pope kind of thing. But also the libraries. I think he’s a guy who wouldbalance all that stuff out with Herman Melville novels, you know? 

Be sure to keep watching Falling Skies, sundays at 10pm on TNT for the return of Colin Cunningham’s John Pope, and be sure to watch out for UGO’s exclusive coverage of the Falling Skies panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2011!

<a href="http://www.ugo.com/tv/falling-skies-colin-cunningham-interviewtag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.ugo.com/tv/falling-skies-colin-cunningham-interviewMon, 11 Jul 2011 17:06:49 GMT 00:00″>Colin Cunningham Talks Falling Skies