Though the end of Season 4 is near, we take a walk down Season 3 memory lane with our Q&A of Nicholas Knight, the author of the Supernatural companion books, about the recent release of Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 3. The interview was done via email.
WinchesterBros.com Exclusive – Q&A with Nicholas Knight, author of The Official Companion Season 3
By: WinchesterBros.com Staff
Nicholas Knight is best known to Supernatural fans as the author of the Official Companion books. A Derringer Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee, Mr. Knight writes in different genres for a variety of media, including books, comics and animated movies. The first issue of his comic, Mind Crimes, can be found at www.mind-crimes.com, and the website for one of his animated projects just went live at www.bodypowers.com. With the recent release of The Official Companion Season 3 earlier this month (March 3), we asked him if he’d be willing to answer a few questions; the interview was done via email.
First, thank you for agreeing to do this Q&A with us.
Kim Manners, Supernatural‘s beloved director and producer, passed away on January 25. Did you ever have the opportunity to interview and/or meet him, and if so, would you share a favorite memory of working with Kim?
I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Kim for each of the companions. He was very passionate about Supernatural and a joy to interview, but I don’t have any particular anecdotes to share since our time together was limited to Q&A’s. However, something that caught my attention when interviewing numerous guest stars was how consistently Kim’s name came up when I asked them what they liked about working on Supernatural. He was a friend and mentor to so many people in the industry; he will be sorely missed.
As this is your third Supernatural Official Companion, did you keep the same method as with the previous two books, or did you want to try something new?
Overall, I kept the same methods, but due to the shorter season I was able to try some new sections in the book, such as doing an episode guide style entry on the third tie-in novel, Bone Key.
We have to ask: Which interviews did you find more interesting, either due to the person interviewed or the info revealed through it?
I can’t answer this question without mentioning Eric Kripke—the info he shares is always interesting and revealing. Likewise, the boys never fail to keep me riveted. And if you ever get a chance to chat with writer Ben Edlund, I highly recommend it; you never know what he’ll say next! I spoke with A.J. Buckley and Travis Wester together, and most of the time they were in character as the Ghostfacers, so that was definitely a fun interview. I could go on, but I’d rather you all just read the book to find out what people said and judge for yourselves who revealed the most interesting stuff!
Were hints for Season 4’s religious path given, intentionally or unintentionally, during the interviews?
Well, timing-wise, they already had a fair amount of the fourth season mapped out when I was in Hollywood interviewing for this third season companion, so I did unintentionally discover a few things, yes. But I did my best to push most of it out of my mind because I didn’t want to foreshadow anything in the book, and because I’m the type of fan that hates spoilers so I wanted to watch the new season and be surprised along with everyone else.
When you did the interviews, was Bela’s fate known? Was there another story for her character, something that might have continued into Season 4?
I did the interviews after Season 3 had ended, so her fate of going to Hell was definitely already known. As for whether she might have continued into Season 4, when I conducted the interviews, they’d already decided that she would not be coming back due to budgetary constraints.
Will there be anything on Season 3 Companion that we haven’t seen before, or something that we’ve seen on Seasons 1 and 2 Companions and won’t be on the new book?
Along with the novel section I mentioned before, there’s another new section called “Scary Stuff,” in which cast and crew tell us what scares them (other than the supernatural, which is once again covered in “Do You Believe?”). Otherwise, everything you’ve seen before is back, with several sections extended. And I think there are more photos this time.
Will you be writing the Season 4 Companion?
I hope so! Nothing’s been finalized yet, so all I can say for now is that it looks likely.
As a fan of the show, how do you find the season so far?
I’m really enjoying the whole angel angle and I think it’s great how they’ve worked Dean more into the myth arc. With the threat of Lucifer’s return and Sam sliding ever closer to the dark side, I think this is shaping up to be the most suspenseful season yet.
If a Supernatural spin-off was in the making, which character do you think it should have been based on? What story would you have written to such a spin-off?
I actually think a spin-off series with Jo would have worked well. She had a lot to learn about hunting, so we could have watched her grow from a girl-next-door type into a non-demonic version of Ruby. The Ghostfacers are well-suited for getting a spin-off series. They could travel across the country, following leads on real ghost sightings and other supernatural occurrences.
Can you tell us anything about the status of your other projects? In the last interview, you talked about a script you were looking to shop around and two animated pilots, as well as on screenplays, novels, and comic scripts in various stages of development.
I’ve decided to revamp the script I was going to shop around because I think I’ll have more luck selling it if I structure it as a lower budget film. The first issue of the comic, Mind Crimes, can be found at www.mind-crimes.com. And I’m happy to say that the website for one of my animated projects just went live at www.bodypowers.com. It’s still under construction, but there’s a rough trailer there that gives a good idea of what the pilot will look like. That’s all the news for now, but I have several other projects in the works, which hopefully I’ll be able to talk about when the Season 4 companion comes out! I’m still averaging four articles per issue of the official Supernatural magazine, and I’ve written some Supernatural articles for SFX magazine, so my Supernatural work keeps me pretty busy. In fact, I’m going to the set to visit the boys again in a couple days…
Again, thank you for agreeing to do this Q&A with us.
And thank you for your interest in the companion guides.
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